


Golden Words

by Calaprine



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Backstory, Bendy is a clingy child, Bendy is a scared upset boy, Boris is a good wolf, Depression, Female Henry, Fluff, Former Doctor Henry, Golden Ink Vision, Guilt, Happy Ending, Joey is a jerk, Morse Code, Parent Henry, Sadness, Smart Bendy, Soooo much fluff, Tramatized Henry, good ending, war veteran Henry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-11-04 00:43:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17888282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calaprine/pseuds/Calaprine
Summary: After Henrietta goes through her first loop, she appears yet again in the animation studio. This time, she is determined to set things right and to prove to Bendy that she is not the bad creator that Joey made her out to be. Lets see if she can make it out this time and save everyone.





	1. Prologue

The first time around the loop was awful. I felt like a puppet in my own body, like my words were being chosen for me. Nothing about the studio that I was in felt right. Not the walls, not the posters, not even my own sight.

The first time I entered the studio I had looked at the walls to the entrance, feeling an itching, burning sensation to my eyes. I felt tricked, like the walls were hiding secrets on me. Like my eyes were seeing only what Joey wanted me to see.

Joey... He had told me to come back to the workshop after I had played the end in the throne room. Joey had taunted me, told me that I was always pushing for the right thing. He told me in no uncertain words that I hadn't tried hard enough.

Staring at the walls to the place where I had entered the workshop, I lifted the tool that Allison had given me during my incarceration. Looking at the walls only proved my suspicions. Golden writing was all over the walls here. Tally marks that covered one section of each side of the wall. On the first poster on my right, the little devil darling poster, was the words 'TURN BACK' in golden letters. On the poster for Boris, there was a message saying 'I'M SORRY BUDDY'. An arrow was on the floor pointing back to the exit, but at the end of the hall were the words 'DON'T TURN ON THE MACHINE'.

The writing in golden ink was in my penmanship too. They were words I would have written to myself, if I could have seen it. The tallies on the wall reminded me of the time I had been waiting in a room near Joey's office, waiting for the butcher gang to walk by the door. I had been so bored, that I had begun to tally off each and every thing that I had killed here on the wall with my pointer finger. It had been a habit I had formed since long ago, being the little girl who had learned to fear the words falling from people's mouths.

Since a little girl my parents had constantly pushed me to the path of the medical carrier, not caring what I had wanted. I had always wanted to draw, to animate. I had created Bendy. I created Boris and Alice. I drew them all when I was seven. I showed them to my parents, hoping for them to be proud of my talent in drawing, only to be scorned, to be pushed to focus on my school work and medical studies. Since then I had taken to drawing imaginary pictures when I was in the critical eyes of my parents. I became secretive with my drawings; always hiding what I was doing. That was how I had met Joey. He was in my school, a year ahead of me and had noticed me scribbling away on a sheet of scrap paper. He thought my drawings were perfect. He thought my ideas were good. He helped me get a summer job at the animation studio where I could escape the controlling hand of my parents and do what I loved for money.

It came back to bite me later though. While I was having the time of my life at the animation studio, my parents were filling out applications to medical positions for me behind my back. They sent one to the army where they desperately needed all the help they could get in the vietnam war. Thanks to them, I was shipped off to Germany for a collective fifteen years. Five of the years I had spent stitching people back up, and saving lives. The next ten years I had been taken captive as a slave by the Germans. They shackled me to the wall, and waited for my will to break. They forced me to serve them, to be an obedient servant for them. I had waited for ten years before I could liberate all my fellow soldiers and nurses from captivity. I had waited for the day when they got drunk and all fell into a deep sleep before going around and slaughtering most of them.

Needless to say, I escaped with many soldiers and nurses. I guided them all back to safety, not caring about my own injuries that would have taken precious time to tend to. My negligence saved them, but did me in at the end. I passed out on the top of a stairway, having ripped open deep wounds in my sides. The fall was bad enough to send me into a coma for the next two weeks. When I woke up, not only was my memory shot, but my motor skills had seemingly vanished. It took many other years for me to remember, and to recover. Even though I had done my best to recover quickly, I was still too late to stop the nightmare that was going on here at the studio. Which brings me back to the present.

I made my way to the ink machine room and located the power cells to power up the lever. While the machine was rising, I used the device again. On the floor was the message 'THERE NEVER WAS A CHOICE'.

I frowned, pushing back the tangled mess of hair that had begun to creep it's way into my face. I rested my hands on the rails that kept me from getting closer to the machine. I began to tap out a message in morse code. "I'm sorry Bendy. You don't deserve this fate. I wish I could take away the mistrust and sadness buddy, and take you home and care for you" I had messaged.

I knew Bendy was sentient. He was created knowing a lot of things, from the documents that I had pulled out of Joey's office pertaining to Bendy. He could understand English, and at times tapped on the walls in what had sounded to Thomas Conner as morse code. I knew morse code because of my studies, and I also knew of Bendy's sharp hearing.

I left the room where I knew Bendy would eventually pop up in, and walked over to the room with the pedestals that power the switch to turn on the machine. I spared the room only a glance, before I began to go around the studio and gather the 'offerings'.

I walked back to the ink machine room, and grabbed the gear. I made my way to the room with the dead Boris clone and took the wrench out of his chest. Before making my way out of the room, I used the tool again having a sneaking suspicion that there was something else written here. On the floor, in front of Boris was the message 'SHE'S HEARTLESS'. I knew that it was Alice to blame for this macabre sight. I entered the closed door on the left, and traveled to the office with the light on inside. Nearing the door made the light go off. Sighing to myself, I opened the door and took the record laying on the floor under the desk. I used the tool again in here. 'LISTENING AND ALWAYS WATCHING' was written on the wall in golden ink, like all the other hidden messages. It was most likely referring to Sammy Lawrence.

I went to the ink flow room, and took the Bendy plushie, and made my way over to where my desk was. Pausing for a moment, I held up the tool to view my desk. 'HE WAS BORN HERE', met my eyes. I noticed something else scribbled in shaky writing with gold ink. Below the first message, in invisible ink, were the words 'CREATOR'.

Nearly dropping the tool, I slumped to the ground, shaking. I rested the tool on the ground gently as my thoughts started racing. 'He knew!' I thought, horrified. My breaths became choppy, and my skin soon was clammy and damp with sweat. Slumping against the wall, I started crying silently. 'Does Bendy blame me for all of this? Does Bendy hate me? Is Bendy a puppet too?' I mulled over these questions in my mind, getting more and more angry with the passing second.

"DAMN YOU JOEY DREW! WHEN I SEE YOU AGAIN I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TWISTED YOU REALLY ARE!" I screamed, my voice echoing off into the distance. "They didn't deserve this!" I wailed, tears near blinding me as I snatched the tool off the floor. I wanted desperately to prove to Bendy that I had no hand in his suffering. I wanted to go around and gather evidence that I was his true creator, not Joey. I wanted Bendy's trust. I wanted to put him to ease.

I blindly made my way over to the animation wing of the studio, my crying now turning into small snivels. I wiped my eyes with the ink stained sleeve of my right arm, going forward over to where the inkwell was resting. I slowed approached the desk, taking note for the first time of a black backpack resting innocently next to the desk.

With a snarl on my face, I snatched the backpack, and tore open the zipper, turning the backpack upside down and dropping everything to the floor. Out of it fell a hairbrush, an unopened plastic water bottle, a very familiar yellowed note, and what appeared to be a feather pen filled with clear liquid.

It was too coincidental that I had been wishing for a way to prove my innocence and a freaking backpack shows up where I KNEW it wasn't supposed to be. I snatched the note up, finding it was the letter I had gotten from Joey, asking me to visit the workshop. It was funny, I was sure I had dropped in the ink river in a fit of rage during the last loop. I took the water bottle, the brush and the note and stuffed them both into the bag, cursing Joey as I did so. I took the pen, and bit down gently on the fluffy white feathery end, angry at my situation. Grumbling to myself, I grabbed the inkwell and stood up from where I had sunk to the floor to pick up the items. I spared a glance at the drawing that was on the desk, noting that it was a picture I had drawn of Bendy looking upward with his gloved hands covering his mouth with a worried look in his eyes. I walked over to the side of the room where the old bathroom was with the cardboard Bendy cutout. I stood in front of the boards blocking the entrance, and slowly lifted the tool up to cover my face. Looking in between the boards, revealed yet another message in golden ink. 'CAN I GET A LITTLE PRIVACY?' I stared for a few seconds, my frazzled, tired mind taking a little while to process what I was seeing. I started giggling, laughing like a lunatic. In a place that could have been my very own personal hell, there was still humor to be found.

Turning around, my eyes fell on my drawing yet again. Bendy was now laying down with his hands propping up his head, with a happy smile on his face. I walked over to the drawing and gingerly took it off the desk, placing it in my backpack for safe keeping.

Continuing onward, I made my way to the door that was slightly ajar, and walked down the stairs to the break room. I walked over to the table where the book was, carelessly scooping it up along with all the rest of the offerings. I walked over to the end of the hallway, and froze at what should have been a blocked off entrance.

The boards were gone. THE FRICKIN BOARDS ARE GONE!

I dashed forward, hopping into the trap door, and approached what appeared to be an inky tunnel. I walked through, coming out to the entrance of the studio. The walls were bleached white, along with everything else. I noticed that the ink splatter was gone. I walked over to where my old work desk would have been, and opened the drawer that opened underneath. Inside was a shabby old brown leather book with my initials carved into the cover. I reached out and picked up the book, only to appear back into the break room in front of the now blocked off exit. The walls were back to their usual yellow tint, but clutched in my left hand was the book.

Opening the book revealed it to be my journal that I had left back home. I smiled softly as I stuffed it in my backpack, now making my way to the pedestal room. I placed all the offerings at their respective places, and made my way over to the ink flow room. I turned the ink flow wheel, ignoring the running projector and the cute whistling omitted from it. I now walked back to the previous room, where I pulled the ink flow lever. The lights dimmed.

Resigned to my fate, I walked back over to the ink machine, the feather quill still firmly placed in my mouth and the tool in my right hand. I dragged myself over to the boarded doorway, knowing that I would be seeing Bendy again. On the way there, I heard tapping.

I stopped, listening to the tapping. It was "Do you remember?" in morse code. I took the quill out of my mouth and held it in my right hand so I could speak. "Yes". I croaked as I approached the doorway. "I'm sorry about the last loop Bendy" I whispered as I now stood in front of the ink machine room. A loud roar was my answer, as Bendy's face jumped into view. Tears ran down my face as I started running to the exit, knowing that I was going to fall again. "We are BOTH puppets Bendy!" I shouted as I neared the exit. I heard a confused whine behind me just before the boards broke beneath my feet. I let out a pained cry as I crashed into several boards before making a hard landing on the ink covered floor. I hastily rose back up and made my way to the valve. I turned the wheel, draining the ink from the room. I raised the tool, seeing another message. 'I ALWAYS FALL'.

Turning to the room behind me, I brought the quill back to my mouth, nervously nibbling at the tip of it as I descended down the stairs into yet another ink filled room. I trudged forward in the ink and turned the drain wheel, and turned to the now draining hallway. I hugged the tool close to me, fiercely praying that I wouldn't pass out again in the summoning room. I entered the last flooded hallway and drained the ink from the room. I opened the door and walked into the room where I would find the axe. I raised the tool again at the writing on the wall. 'JOEY LIED TO US'.

I took the axe with my left hand, and used it to clear the way from the boards. I chopped the boards off of the door, and opened it, noticing that the world was suddenly shaking. I dropped the axe and clutched the tool up against my chest for comfort as I entered the summoning circle.

Unlike last time, bright light blinded my vision instead of images. The light bulbs to the tool seared uncomfortably bright and I tasted ink in my mouth. The light receded from my eyes and the tool and came back again with a greater intensity then before, now burning my eyes. I took out the inky quill from my mouth with my left hand, dropped it and covered my eyes with the inky hand. The light faded away once more. I took deep breaths, trying to calm my frantic heartbeat. I slowly relaxed my body, thinking that the light show was over. Right when I relaxed the hand holding the tool, the lights blazed the entire room. I dropped the tool by mistake and reached out to grab it. Unfortunately, the lights had cracked on it, which in turn led to me being electrocuted. I yelled as electricity caught the ink on my body, searing white hot welts into my skin. When the light faded for the final time, I found my eyes closing 'Maybe a little sleep wouldn't kill me', I thought, before I blacked out.

Waking up was awful. I felt like someone had stuffed my mouth full of cotton. My eyes ached, and my skin lightly throbbed in tune with my heartbeat. I slowly pushed myself up, looking down at the tool that Allison had given me, only to find it broken beyond repair. Depression hung over me like a cloud as I tossed the tool to the side, my eyes staring at the floor. Slowly, I raised my head without opening my eyes. Golden letters were the first thing I saw when my eyes opened.

On the two coffins in front of me were two names. 'NORMAN' and 'GRANT'. The axe was propped up against Norman's coffin.


	2. Getting a grip

"This sucks". I hissed, as I ducked my head under the deluge of ink. The cool liquid both burned and soothed my irritated skin as I forced myself to stay still. Keeping burns cool was the first thing you should do when dealing with burns. Water would have been a better choice to soak myself in, but water was scarce in here. A curtain of ink was sadly the next best thing. It had been way past twenty minutes, and here I was still next to the room that I was electrocuted in. The pain on my skin was mercifully mild, but my head was a different story. Not only did my eyes feel like they were burning, but I had a throbbing headache that refused to die down. I guess I could say I was lucky that I got hurt here and not when doing errands for Alice out in the open. The worst thing that could happen here would either be Sammy lumbering around or Bendy popping up again.

Minutes ticked by as I waited for the pain in my head to recede. Eventually, I reached up and poked one of my temples, testing if the pain was manageable at the very least. A mild sting was all I got out of it. I sighed as I dragged myself out of the curtain of ink. It was a good thing that I liked the smell of it.

I gingerly began to raise myself off the ground, taking my time in stretching out the sore muscles of my body. Ink dripped off of me and painted the wooden floor at a moderate pace as I lumbered over to Norman's coffin. I reached down and took the axe, examining it for a few moments before slinging it over my right shoulder. I walked over to the barred door and swung the axe down twice, once on each board. I turned the door nob and stepped through the doorway.

"Lets's say hello to Sammy" I muttered as I approached the stairs. Nearing the top of them, I was jumped by the board falling in front of me. I glared at the broken board, unamused. I looked behind me and felt my heart skip a beat and my face pale. On the wall, in the other room was another golden message. 'SAY HELLO TO SAMMY'. Shivers tingled down my spine as I realized that I had said almost the same exact thing moments before. I turned back to the stairs, and hurried on my way. I dully noticed the sign labeling the area as Utility Shaft 9 hanging on the wall above the stairs. Ahead of me was a shrine made up most likely by Sammy. On the walls was black ink, painted on to saying 'HE WILL SET US FREE'. I raised an eyebrow, thinking on what I could do to make Sammy remember himself.

Sammy was a nit picky person to say the least. His music had to be perfect. He got irritated whenever someone made a mistake. I also knew he had a soft spot for Susie Campbell and Norman Polk. Polk was one of the people who didn't completely tick him off.

Frowning as I passed the shrine, I made my way over to where the first power switch was. Like before, two coffins were resting against the wall in that same summoning circle. And like the other two coffins, these one's were labeled in gold ink. 'BERTRUM' was labeled on the one on the left. 'LACIE' was labeled on the one on the right. I flipped the panel that was covering the power switch and turned the power on. Stepping away from the wall, I glanced over at the desk where Sammy's video log had been propped up against the wall. Above the log, were more golden letters. 'DECEIVED'. I snorted at that. 'Not deceived', I thought. 'Crazy is more like it'.

Turning to my right, I approached the other electrical panel and opened it as well. I flipped the switch, and continued on my way. In the hallway ahead of me was a Bendy cutout resting in front of a summoning circle. I walked over until I was a few feet from it.

In the last loop, Bendy had been angry that I had broken all his cutouts. I had a theory on the things. Bendy had ink covering his eyes constantly, so it would make sense it he used the cutouts to be able to see. I recalled the confused sound that Bendy had made when I had told him that we were both puppets. 'Maybe he thinks I'm running these loops!' I thought. My eyes widened as realization dawned on me. It would explain the open hostility that Bendy had continued to show me during the last loop. Taking a chance, I began tapping a message on the wall in front of the cutout. "I am not in control of this place Bendy." I tapped. "Joey is. I want to help everyone here Bendy. Can you please give me a chance to prove it?" I waited, listening for any response.

Receiving no answer, I continued on my way down the hall. Approaching the next doorway, I made a face as I stepped into the ink covered floor. Sloughing my way through, I watched as Sammy walked by in the room in front of me holding a Bendy cutout. "Sheep, sheep, sheep. It's time for sleep. Rest your head. It's time for bed." Sammy said. I remained silent, knowing from the last loop that Sammy wouldn't answer me if I tried talking to him.

I entered the other room, and turned to the cutout by the summoning circle. "I hope you don't screw Sammy up too bad this time around. I want to be able to help him too Bendy." I said to the cutout. Above me in the far distance, I heard a loud crash and hissing, making me flinch away from the cutout. Clicking the last switch to power up the lever up ahead, I scurried over past the clay Bendy statue and over to the lever. Pulling it down, I waited impatiently for the door to open.

When the door had finally opened, I walked forward and took down the five boards blocking the way into the other room with the axe. On the floor in front of me were the words 'OUCH' written in gold ink. It was right around the area where Sammy hit me with Wally's dustpan. Frowning, I entered the room. Taking a right, I walked forward until the the doorway to the flooded room was next to me. I walked in and pulled the switch on the wall.

Turning around, I braced myself for the searchers that would pop up in the other room. Raising my axe, I entered the room waiting patiently for the first searcher to fall from the ceiling. Once it hit the ground, I quickly smashed the axe into it making it pop and die, only for others to spawn around me. I went into autopilot, chopping any searcher that got too close for my liking. While my attention was focused in front of me, I made the error of not recalling the searcher that could spawn behind me in the ink puddle. This resulted in inky arms being thrown around my neck as the remaining two searchers in front of wrapped around me. Their arms were freezing cold, and everything was growing fuzzy. The ink froze my skin as I finally went limp.

Moments later, I was in an inky tunnel surrounded by wails of sadness. Recognizing the tunnel, I began walking forward toward the misshapen disc of light. With a splash of ink, I was thrown to the ground in front of the clay Bendy statue. 'So that's what those statues are for' I thought, as I raised my axe and charged back into the room that I had died in. With three quick swipes, the remaining searchers melted away and the ink stained gramophone started up again.

I took a moment to take stock of my situation. Thanks to the recent death, my skin was back to normal and my headache was gone. My skin was no longer caked with drying ink, only little splashes of black ink marred my grey skirt and white top. My hair was clean too, I noticed. It was back in it's original braid that hung down to my waist. I smiled. Maybe I didn't have to cut my hair when I get out of here.

It took a grand total of ten seconds before I raced out of the tiny room that I was in and over to where I would have seen writing on the floor. To my relief, the golden letters had remained visible. Now visibly happy, I practically skipped over to the trash cans, checking them for Wally's keys. I managed to find them in the trash basket next to the desk with a paper covered in the same Bendy faces, with different moods written below them. Once I retrieved the keys, I took the paper off the desk and placed it in my backpack. I pulled out the water bottle and snapped the seal on the top, taking a long drink of water. I recapped it, then shoved it back into the backpack. Hauling the now zipped backpack back on my shoulders, I made my way over to Wally's closet.

Once there, I turned on the tape and waited for Sammy to list off the instruments that I needed to play to open his sanctuary.

Base fiddle. Drums. The piano. The piano again.

I made my way to the room filled with instruments. Golden letters caught my eye. Next to Susie's recording, were the words 'SO NAIVE'. Poor Susie.

I walked over to the piano and placed the top back where it was should have been resting. I then walked out to the balcony where the projector was. Taking a moment to pocket the recording of Norman Polk, I turned on the projector and raced down the stairs to the instrument room. Quickly I plucked a string of the fiddle and ran over to the drums, smacking the side of it. I scooted over to the piano and tapped a key on it twice. The sanctuary opened up.

I walked inside, and paused only to rip the lyrics to 'The Lighter side of Hell' off of the stand it was on. I folded it up and tucked the page in my upper shirt pocket. Ignoring the writing on the wall, I walked over and turned the ink flow wheel. Lifting the axe higher, I charged into the instrument room, ignoring the cutout peering in at me and started slashing the searchers that popped up with the axe.

With minimal injuries, I managed to take down the searchers. Looking up at the balcony, I spotted Sammy Lawrence. "Hey Lawrence!" I called, knowing that Sammy wouldn't react to me. "You know Norman and Susie are still here, right?" I tried, looking at Sammy for any reaction. The only thing he did was clench his hands tightly.

I sighed, as I began walking over to the infirmary. Killing the lone searcher that was there, I walked over to the electrical switch. I pulled the switch down, lighting up the entire downstairs. Already knowing that the swollen searcher had the wheel, I descended the stairs to go and reclaim it.

I waived to the Bendy cutout and walked over to the inky sewer, trying my best to ignore the wretched smell that pervaded it. Chopping down the two boards that were blocking the way, I scared the searcher wearing the nice hat. It plopped away, further on the path. Ignoring the inky message about slaughtering sheep, I hopped up on the desk that Jack Fain was fond of. I took the Violin with me, and walked over to the area where the searcher would have been.

In the distance, on the wall were the words 'SING WITH ME' written in black ink. Written over that was 'I DON'T SING WITH PSYCHOS' in gold. I heard moaning to the left of me, and figured it was Jack wallowing in his misery. I slowly walked over to the left, stopping a distance away.

"Jack!" I called. The moaning abruptly stopped, as the swollen searcher turned to face me. It just sat there, staring at me. I raised the violin, showing it to the searcher. "Jack, can I trade this violin for that valve you have there?" I questioned, hoping that I wouldn't have to crush him again. Jack continued to stare at me, before slowly approaching. I waited patiently for Jack, holding out the violin with my right hand. I watched as the searcher took the violin and replaced it with the valve. I smiled at the searcher. "Thank you Jack. Don't worry, I will find a way to set you free." I said gently, turning around.

I jumped, yipping as I came face to face with yet another Bendy cutout. This one was inches away from my face, where I knew it wasn't supposed to be. I ran around it and hurriedly made my way back to the infirmary. I replaced the valve and turned it, draining the ink from the entrance to Sammy's office.

I dashed up the stairs and down the hallway to where the door was. Opening the door, I started walking over to the desk where the blueprints were located when I stopped, looking at the floor. 'CREATOR YOU TRAITOR' was written in Sammy's handwriting, the golden letters slightly smudged. I walked past the nasty comment, and took the blueprints off the desk. I took the lyric sheet out of my shirt pocket and placed it where the blueprint had previously been resting. I folded the blueprints up and placed them in my pocket like the lyrics, before I walked over and pulled the switch labeled pump control.

I walked back out of the office, knowing that Sammy was going to hit me with Wally's dustpan once I reached the golden words on the floor. Resigned to my fate, I continued forward wanting to see Bendy again.

CRACK!

I fell to the ground, seeing Sammy standing over me. This time, he was silent.

When I woke up, I was bound yet again to the pole. My head pounded like I had a hangover to rival all hangovers. Sammy was in front of me tapping his foot with his arms crossed. My axe was to the side already. "My, my! The little sheep has a rare pair of eyes on her. So little sheep, you know where Norman and Susie are?" Sammy asked, sounding absolutely irate. I gave Sammy a look that clearly said 'seriously?'

"Susie is the incomplete Alice Angel hanging around level Nine. Norman is the projectionist that's made his home in level fourteen. I take it you have seen at least one of them around here." I said, sounding bored even to my ears.

"No, that can't be right. Susie can't be that misshapen wretch that lives to disgrace my lord!" Sammy growled, leaning in next to my face. Inky hands curled around my throat lightly. "And Norman is too smart to have met his fate here! Tell me the truth little sheep!" Sammy spat, now gripping my neck with force.

I started shaking, flashing back to my time in Germany. I frantically tried to pull my hands free as I plastered myself to the pole. Sobs started ripping free from my throat. It was too real. This situation was so close to the one that I had to endure for ten years. My tears may as well have only served to get Sammy even more angry. "Do you honestly think that I will let you go?! I have suffered here for thirty damn years while you were having the good life away from this place! You know nothing about true misery! You hear me?! NOTHING!" He yelled, rattling me even more then the situation normally would have warranted.

Before permanent damage could have been done, a loud roar echoed in the distance. Sammy dropped his hands, leaving me to gasp and wheeze for breath. "No, it wouldn't do good for me to spoil my lord's offering. No, it wouldn't." He said, looking like he was forcing himself to calm down. "The time of sacrifice is at hand. The ritual must be completed." Sammy said, walking over to the door on the left with heavy steps.

I struggled with the ropes, twisting my hands every which way in an attempt to loosen them. Tears streamed down my eyes as my breath grew choppy. "Hear me Bendy! Arise from the darkness and claim my offering. Free me, I beg you! I summon you ink demon! Show your face and take this tender sheep!" Sammy said, his voice bouncing from around the studio.

Sweat ran down my face as I tugged on my bindings, feeling them becoming loose. "No! My lord! Stay back! I am your prophet. I am your- ahhhhh!"

The ropes fell from around my hands as I lunged forward, snatching the axe off the ground. Searchers spawned in front of me, adding to my already rising hysteria. I forcefully cut them down, screaming as their inky bodies stung my legs. One by one, they disappeared, leaving me alone in the room.

I ran forward, mindlessly chopping down the boards that were in my way. Ahead of me was a dark room with 'BOO' written on the wall in golden letters. Before I even had a chance to run, Bendy had appeared from the inky floor and had tackled me to the floor.

Bendy hissed in my face, snarling unhappily. I looked up at where Bendy's eyes should be, feeling his body shaking around mine. "Bendy, are you alright? I-" Bendy cut me off with an upset growl. Ink was falling from his head faster then when it did when he was mad. I froze, falling silent as Bendy continued to hang over me.

Moments ticked by, as his shaking slowly got worse. I wondered why he hadn't killed me yet, as I stared at him. After a few moments, a loud whine fell out of his mouth as he pressed his face against my abdomen. I felt my white shirt soak through with runny ink where his face was pressed against. Whimpers tore out of him, as he held onto me like I would disappear. I gasped as I realized that yes, Bendy WAS crying. I wrapped my hands around Bendy's lanky body, not caring at this point about how stained my shirt was. I started murmuring soothingly to Bendy, as I held him with a gentleness that one would find from a mother holding her child. As Bendy's shaking slowed down, I tried my hand at further calming him down. "Hey, it's alright Bendy. Sammy didn't hurt me too badly." I said, only for my heart to sink when loud wails started up again.

Bendy sat up and pulled me against his surprisingly warm, inky body. He held me in a death grip as I awkwardly tried to settle against his lap. He didn't seem to care that we were in quite the compromising position. He buried his head against my shoulder, now crying in earnest, his body jerking harshly with the force of his sobs. I hesitantly patted Bendy on the back, forcibly ignoring my rising concern.

I forced myself to get a grip on the situation. Here was Bendy, who was crying against my shoulder. The same Bendy that had chased after me during the last loop, trying to kill me. What could have caused him to turn from wanting to rip my head off to this?

Bendy was gripping my shirt harshly, consumed in misery. My heart twisted, feeling upset myself of seeing my own creation so unhappy. I rested my head against Bendy's bony shoulder, gently stroking his skeletal back. I resigned myself to waiting for his crying to stop. When his sobs had died down to little sniffles, I slowly pulled my head back so I could take a look at Bendy's face. His usual smile was twisted in a frown. Inky lines streaked down the white of his face past his mouth. Gently, I raised my hand and wiped off the inky lines, a sad smile on my face. Bendy had stopped sniffling, but he still refused to let me go.

I grabbed one of his arms, and tried coaxing him to talk to me via morse code. He seemed reluctant, looking like he simply wanted to stay where he was and fall asleep. "Bendy please tell me why you were so upset. Your making me scared over here." I said, trying to ease him into relaying what was going on.

He seemed to be debating what to say, before reaching over and beginning to tap his fingers on my arm.

"He was going to kill you. Kill you for good!" He relayed. I gently swiped the ink away from the rest of his face, revealing the pie cut eyes that I knew and loved. "Please don't die on me!" He messaged, looking me in the eyes with an upset expression on his face.

I smiled soothingly, and reached over to pet him between his horns. He seemed to enjoy it, relaxing quickly into the friendly action. After a few moments, I pulled my hand away, making Bendy look up at me curiously. "It's going to be okay Bendy. I'm going to get us all out of here. I made it through this once already, so I know what to expect." I said, my smile growing. "And with your help, we can save the real Boris and all the other lost souls down here. You could help us all get back to the top floor so we can turn off the machine and get out of here."

Bendy smiled at that, loosening his hold on my shirt. After a moment, he let go of it completely, and limped back over to the pool of ink. I watched curiously, wondering what he was doing now. I was about to ask him when I saw huge amounts of ink fall from his body. His form got smaller and smaller, until he was only two and a half feet tall. His hands would have been on model had he not been missing a glove. His horns were on model too. His body was less skeletal, the spines on his back jutting out only slightly now. His feet looked back to normal, but his bowtie was still off to the side.

Once his transformation was complete, he ran over to me. I reached down and plucked Bendy off of the floor, holding him in my arms carefully while starting to walk to the safe house. When I neared the mess of barrels and boards, I looked at Bendy, hoping he could break them in this form. He reached out his ungloved hand and inky lines formed over the blockade. Moments later it was destroyed.

I carried Bendy through the path, and stopped when a can of bacon soup rolled past me on the floor. "I know your out there. Come on out and show yourself Boris." I said calmly, as Boris walked into view.

"Boris!" Bendy squealed, making grabby hands at the wolf.

 


	3. What goes up must come down...

It was cute watching Boris and Bendy greet each other. Bendy scrambled down from my arms and stood over by Boris's feet, hopping up and down with his hands in the air. Boris leaned down and scooped the little demon up, and playfully tossed him in the air a few times, resulting in whistles of laughter coming from Bendy. Boris then grabbed onto Bendy's arm, and started tickling his sides. Cute little squeaks emitted from the almost-toon as he struggled in vain to escape, shooting me a pleading look for help.

Snorting, I walked over and plucked Bendy out of the hands of the wolf. Boris looked unhappy, but quickly got over it when I reached over and hugged him with the arm not holding Bendy. Pulling back, Boris motioned me to follow him. I tagged along as he brought me back to the door that led to the safe house. Ushering the both of us in, he hurriedly closed the door behind us and locked it. I raised an eyebrow at this but chose not to comment, knowing that Alice was still out there.

Like the last loop, Boris ended up dragging me over to the bedroom and gestured for me to sit down on the cot against the end of the room. Boris left the room for a few moments, but quickly returned with a beaten up med-kit. I gently placed Bendy at my side and tossed my backpack to the floor as Boris anxiously looked me over for any serious injuries. Seeing that there was nothing that wouldn't heal up with time, Boris left the room leaving me and Bendy to ourselves.

Glancing down at the little imp, I noted that he looked as tired as I felt. I tugged the demon closer, and laid down on my side like I usually slept. Bendy scooted over and cuddled up against my stomach, whining for attention. Chuckling, I began to stroke Bendy's back in a soothing rhythm. He arched into my hand like a cat, I noticed. It made me wonder how touch starved the little guy was.

From what I had found during the last loop, after being created Bendy was imprisoned somewhere in the studio. The tapes that I had found from both Tom and Joey told that very little positive attention was given to him, due to Joey believing that he didn't have a soul.

'He's too skeletal', I thought, running my hand down his spine. Though the ridges didn't stand out like it did in his previous form, they were still there. It was sad. I knew Boris could eat, so it would make sense that Bendy should be able to do so as well. I also knew that there was bacon soup all over the studio, so there was little excuse for him to be in such a state of neglect. 'Was he starving himself?' I questioned, stilling my hand when I began to hear light snores from his tiny form. I decided that I would surprise him tomorrow and make some hot soup for him before he wakes up.

Bendy was still asleep when I woke up. I glanced up at the clock and squealed when I saw the golden drawing around it. Bendy snapped awake, quickly looking around. After finding no one else in the room, he looked at me in confusion. I pointed up at the noisy thing hanging the wall. Bendy looked at the clock then looked at me, giving me an unamused look. "Sorry that I woke you up Bendy. Scattered around the studio is a bunch of writing done in golden ink that you can't normally see without a special tool. I acquired a seeing tool during the last loop. The tool was damaged beyond repair, but I can see the ink without it now." I explained. "Someone drew a longer body around that clock on the wall. I was just surprised."

Bendy gave me an odd look before huffing and going back to sleep. I retrieved my backpack and and walked over to the bathroom, planning on fixing up my hair. Walking in there, I dropped the bag on the counter to the sink, looking up at the mirror. 'WHO AM I NOW?'

I frowned as I moved to the side where the mirror was not obscured by golden ink. I froze upon seeing my reflection. My usual bright blue eyes were now spattered with flecks of gold which spread across the entire band of color. I felt unsettled, knowing that my eyes were now an anomaly. At least the change was a pretty one.

I yanked out the elastic holding the bottom of my braided hair, and quickly combed through it with my fingers. Taking out the hairbrush from the bag, I quickly brushed out the tangled, inky mess and braided it. Within minutes, I was done.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I walked over to the end of the hallway. Boris was already up, sitting at the table next to the stove. In front of Boris were the words 'I'M SORRY BUDDY'. I ignored the message and walked over to the corner of the room where the patchwork creature was on the wall. Stacked there were Nine cans of bacon soup. I picked up three of them, and walked back over to the stove.

It only took a few minutes to heat up the soup. I quickly dished a bowl out for Boris (who practically inhaled his portion) before making two more for me and Bendy. I carefully carried the two bowls to the bedroom where Bendy was still sleeping. I smiled softly, seeing him curled up on the spot that I was sleeping on, looking slightly cold now. I placed my bowl on the floor, then reached out and started petting Bendy between the horns. "Hey sleepyhead, I made you some breakfast." I watched with an amused expression as Bendy sleepily raised his head and yawned. He pushed himself up so he was sitting on the cot before thanking me and taking the soup from my hand. I reached down and got my soup off the floor, and started to chow down myself.

When we were both done, I collected the bowls and the pot that I used to cook the soup, and headed off to the bathroom to wash them. I carried them back into the kitchen when I was done, noticing Bendy was playing a card game with Boris. I opened my backpack and took out my journal, deciding that it was high time to record what was happening. Bendy and Boris didn't notice it until I started rooting around in the bag for that feather quill. Bendy looked over at me. "Hey, whatcha looking for Henri?" Bendy asked. While Bendy's attention was averted, Boris tried to sneak a peak at Bendy's cards that were laying on the table. Bendy caught him, and swiftly collected his cards and held them away from the canine's prying eyes.

"I'm looking for a feather quill that I had with me earlier. Now that I think of it, I might have bit down on it too hard and broke it when I was being electrocuted by the seeing tool." I said, not noticing Bendy's intense stare. Boris did however, and subtly elbowed him to make him stop. "I wonder if there's any pens laying around in these cabinets." I muttered.

Boris gave me a look that said 'good luck with that', before he went back to his card game with Bendy. I started opening drawers, only finding outdated spices and cooking ware. The third drawer I opened yielded a feather quill that was identical to the one that I had found on the first floor. "Found one!" I sang as I grabbed the quill and walked over to the table with the other two boys. Boris stared at me with his mouth hanging open. "What?" I asked, looking at Boris.

"There weren't any quills in that cabinet Henri." Boris said, tapping his hands on the table to relay the message. I frowned, looking at the quill.

"I don't know what to tell ya Boris. I found this in that cabinet next to the stove." I said, thinking that Boris was just pulling my leg. Boris gave me a worried look before letting the topic drop.

I walked over to the ink spill in the hallway, and did my best to get some ink in the quill so I could start writing. Once I was satisfied with my work, I rejoined the boys at the table and started writing away in my journal, telling of what happened when I entered the studio. I had just managed to finish the last sentence when Bendy laid down his cards, seemingly won the game that he was playing with Boris.

"Henrietta?" Bendy said hesitantly, leaving the cards for Boris to pick up. I closed my journal and turned my head so that I was facing Bendy.

"Yes Bendy?" I said.

"Why did you leave the studio in the first place?" He asked, sounding strangely timid. I sighed and tried to think of a way to explain it to him without further traumatizing the kid.

"A war broke out in a place called Germany. Many good people where killed and many others were injured during it. My parents signed me up for five years down there as a doctor, where I would be fixing up the wounded soldiers from the battlefield without me knowing. They accepted the application that my parents sent out, and I was forced to go there and help out." I said, choosing my words carefully. I looked down at the journal in my hands. "Me and my nurses were all taken hostage during my fifth year down there. They took us far away from the place we were originally stationed, and kept us there for ten years." By now, my hands started shaking. I looked up at Bendy's eyes forcing myself to stay calm. "They did things to us down there. Horrible things that gives me nightmares to this day." Despite my best efforts, my voice started shaking. "I managed to gain my captors trust and hurt them so that they couldn't hurt anyone else anymore, and got everyone out. As you would expect, it wasn't easy escaping. I was hurt badly and ended up sleeping for two weeks due to me not wanting to waste time to take care of my injuries. Afterward, I had to take a long time to recover."

Bendy reached out and grabbed the hand closest to him. "Thank you for telling me." Bendy said, looking sad. Boris whined and got up from his chair and pulled me into a hug. I cracked a smile at this, not wanting to get upset over something that was in the past.

The rest of the day was spent playing card games and talking about lighter subjects. I made another pot of soup for all of us to share and took care of all the dishes when we were done. I grabbed Bendy and made my way over to the bedroom, with Boris trailing behind me. He took the hammock while I settled down on the cot again. This time Bendy fell asleep without much coaxing. I stayed awake for a while, brooding over how I would keep Boris safe from Alice. Eventually, I drifted off.

This time, I woke up alone. I knew from the last loop that Boris had most likely scattered the remaining bacon soup and had already taken the handle from the exit. I got up and got started with gathering the cans of Bacon soup that were scattered around the safe house. In the kitchen, Bendy watched me curiously as I heated up the cans of soup then ladled it out for Boris. He gave me a confused look before Boris reached down behind the table and pulled up the toolbox that was hiding on the floor. Boris placed the box on the table before digging in to his bowl of soup. I fixed two more bowls for me and Bendy, knowing that he was probably as hungry as I was.

Once we were all finished eating, I picked up the toolbox, took out the lever, closed it and placed it on the floor in front of the table. I slid the toolbox to the side, and made my way over to the closed door. Nearby was the colorless painting that I had seen in Joey's house. 'REMINDS ME OF HOME' was written on it in gold letters. Boris and Bendy walked over with me, waiting patiently as I put the lever back where it was supposed to be and pulled it down.

As the door opened, I walked back to the room that me and Bendy spent the night in. I grabbed the leg bone off of the floor and hurried back over to the two boys who were standing at the doorway waiting for me. I handed Boris the bone, and entered the hall ahead. Taking a left, the three of us approached a little miracle station. Bendy clung to my side as we passed the station, glaring resentfully at the halo painted on it. I paused in front of it.

"Hey Bendy, why do you hate these little miracle stations so much?" I asked.

"It has demon warding all over it" Bendy grumbled, looking up at me. "That's why I left you alone in them during the last loop." Bendy explained, looking sad. Boris tilted his head slightly upon hearing about the loop.

Sudden knocking caught our attention. "What's this about loops?" Boris messaged. He looked at both me and Bendy, waiting for an answer. Neither of us spoke, not really wanting to tell Boris the sad news. Boris sighed. "Okay, what are you two not telling me?" He questioned.

Bendy looked at me, silently asking me to fill him in. I gave him a helpless look back, before giving in to Bendy's now tragic looking expression. "Boris, this is not the first time I have met you." I said, feeling guilty. Boris leveled me with a shockingly stern look, and began tapping a foot. "It's not easy to say Boris, but we are repeating the past here. This is the second time that I have had to deal with all this crap." I said, looking at the floor. "During the last loop, Bendy was trying to kill me, and Alice ended up harvesting your organs." Glancing up at Boris, I continued. "She crashed the elevator while we were both in it. You were trying to wake me up from the crash when she took you. I tried to get you back before Alice could hurt you, but I was too late."

Boris stared at both me, and Bendy. A look of shock slowly took over his face. Boris closed his eyes and nodded. I looked over at Bendy who looked angry and upset. "Hey, I think I have a plan to keep Boris safe this time around. I can't guarantee anything, but I think Alice will be hard pressed to get to him if I manage to pull off my plan." I said, now looking hopefully at the Wolf.

Bendy tugged on my skirt with his gloved hand. "Well, what's this plan?" He asked impatiently. I smiled sadly at him.

"It's something I need to do alone, because it will be very dangerous. I will most likely die many, painful deaths before it can be put into motion." I said, not wanting to get into all the details. Bendy glared at me. Boris gave me a worried look.

"No." Bendy said.

"What do you mean no?" I quipped, now staring at Bendy.

"I mean no, your not going to do what you were planning on doing!" Bendy growled, ink running down his face.

"Look, I can't say that it's avoidable either. There's really no better option then the one I want to take." I said, sounding exasperated.

"You don't get it, do you?!" Bendy nearly screamed, as he clenched his hands into fists. "It gets harder to pull yourself out of the puddles with every death here! I don't even know if you will make it back if you die once here, let alone multiple times."

"I have to try it Bendy. You do want Boris safe, don't you?" I said calmly. Bendy looked at me, nearly crying in frustration.

"There has to be another, safer way." Bendy begged, hoping to sway my mind.

"Bendy, as long as I am in this animation studio I will never be safe." It was a cruel reminder, but it did the job. Bendy fell silent.

"Come on then. Let's get this all done and over with so we all can get out of here." I said, walking ahead. A worried Boris and an upset Bendy followed me as I walked over to the desk on my right, and plucked the flashlight from it.

"All right, there's a dark area up ahead. Keep behind me Boris so you won't be in the dark. Bendy, can you come here please?" Bendy sullenly walked over to me. I rolled my eyes and swiped Bendy off the floor, ignoring his indignant squeal. I started walking into the dark, holding Bendy with one hand and the light with the other. Boris trailed closely behind me, whimpering slightly. We walked through several hallways, hearing gears moving at our sides. Soon we approached the better lit room with a dead end.

Boris walked over to the grate next to the door, and motioned for the flashlight. After setting Bendy back on the ground, I walked over and gave Boris the flashlight. Boris then opened the grate and started to crawl through. "Where is Boris going?" Bendy asked.

"I don't know Bendy. I do know that he managed to open the door during the last loop and we met up later." I admitted, waiting for Boris to open the door. Nearly a minute later, the door slid open. I turned to Bendy, smiling. "There we go. Ready to go and see Miss Susie?" I asked. Bendy nodded and walked forward with me. Passing a plain hallway, we entered the toy section of the studio. It was a large room filled with toys, Bendy cutouts, posters and more ink. We walked up the steps that led to the factory part of the floor. Bendy was about to enter the toy room when I pointed to the power switch to the left. He waited as I pulled the switch, and entered the room with him. Inside, I set to pulling all the pieces of toys out of the belt of the machine. When I was done I walked over to the bowl holding living in at the desk. I tapped on it three times until it settled into the shape of the ink machine. On the video log were the words 'TOP OF THE MORNING' written in sloppy gold. I backed away from the area as Bendy flicked the switch which moved the hanging racks of toys. He pulled the switch several times before the door was accessible. We both approached the door.

I paused before opening it. Without a word, I leaned down and pulled Bendy into my arms and started to gently stroke his back. He hummed quietly as I kicked open the door and entered the room where Susie/Alice was to appear. The door closed with a bang behind us as the lights went out. I froze, holding Bendy against me tightly.

I'm the cutest little angel, sent from above, and I know just how to swing. I got a bright little halo, and I'm filled with love...

**Pop!**

I'm Alice Angel!

I'm the hit of the party, I'm the belle of the ball, I'm the toast of every town. Just one little dance, and I know you'll fall...

**Pop! (cue spotlight)**

I'm Alice Angel!

I ain't no flapper, I'm a classy dish, and boy, can this girl sing. This gal can grant your every wish...

**I'm Alice Angel!**

Susie appeared and smashed the glass she was behind. The spotlight went out as Susie's laughter was heard. "I see you there... new flies in my endless web. Lets see if your worthy to walk with angels." Susie said before the lights came back on. When our vision was restored, Susie was gone.

Bendy was growling in my arms, clearly ticked off by the little show. I shushed him by resuming stroking his back. He huffed before leaning his head on my shoulder, content for the time being. I entered the newly opened area. Taking a left, we walked down the hall before taking a right. In front of us were two signs. The demon, and the angel. I took the demon path, having taken the angel path during the last loop.

The floor was covered in black ink. I groaned as I stepped into the gooey mess, vowing that I would be taking a long shower when we all got home. On the wall, in my penmanship was another sentence written in gold ink. 'HIS DREAMS, MY EFFORT'.

On a chair up ahead was another audio log. Curious, I walked over to play the tape, having not heard it before. I instantly regretted it as Joey's voice began to play. Bendy started snarling in my arms, and refused to calm down while the tape played. I grew angry myself listing to the jerk. When the tape had finished playing, I picked it up and threw it at the wall. A loud crack was heard before the tape fell onto the inky floor. Bendy slowly stopped snarling. "I swear, the next time I see that guy I'm punching him into next year", I grumbled. I looked at the writing on the wall again. "Look Bendy." I murmured, pointing at the writing.

Bendy looked up at the wall. "The wall's a little wavy there." Bendy said, sounding shocked. He turned his head so he was looking at my face. "I get the feeling I'm missing something here."

"It's more of the messages written in golden ink. This one's in my penmanship and it says 'his dreams, my effort." I relayed. Bendy looked back at the wall and squinted his eyes.

"I can't see it. I wish I could though." Bendy pouted, now looking back at me.

"I wish you could see them too Bendy. At least then I wouldn't be thinking that I was seeing things." I said, now frowning. I exited the room, still carrying Bendy. We continued down our way for a few minutes before a bendy cutout peered around the corner. On the other side of it was Boris, holding a gent pipe.

"Boris! Nice to see you again!" Bendy said. I placed Bendy on the ground and walked over to Boris.

"Got me a weapon?" I questioned. Boris held out the pipe for me to take. "This will do I guess."

Opening the door next to us, we all entered the room. We walked around the shelves that were holding dolls. We exited the room and made our way over to the switch on the wall.

"Boris, can you get this switch while I get the other one?" I asked, looking over at the wolf. Boris nodded and walked over to the switch. "Bendy, stay with Boris please. There's a member of the butcher gang where the other switch is, and I don't want you to get hurt." I said. Bendy gave me an incredulous look.

"Your clearly forgetting who I am Henri." Bendy said flatly. "I am more then capable of taking care of myself while keeping others safe."

"Have you even tried to attack something in your current form?" I asked. Bendy slowly looked down at the floor.

"No." He admitted, scuffing a booted foot across the floor.

"Can you turn back into your other form without hurting yourself?"

"I haven't tried to be honest. I've been stuck in that other form since I was created. I want to stay like this. It hurts less." Bendy replied. I stared at Bendy, not knowing what to say. "I can still control ink if your wondering." He said, looking thoughtful.

"All right. I won't ask you to do something your not comfortable with. In the meantime though, leave the fighting to me." I said. Bendy rolled his eyes as I took a left and headed down the hall. I entered the doorway on my right and walked over to the audio log. I slid my backpack down, and shoved the log into my backpack. I exited the room and walked over to the switch. Before I could pull it down, a piper popped out from behind it's poster and face-planted on the ground. I pressed my foot on it's back, and smacked it upside the head six times. It melted away, and I flipped the lever.

Returning to the boys, we continue through the now open door down a hallway and down a flight of stairs before encountering the elevator. In front of it was 'WE ALWAYS FALL' written in gold. I stared at the message for a few moments. Bendy noticed. "What's it say?" He asked quietly.

"We always fall." I answered. Boris started whining. "Don't worry Boris. She won't crash the elevator until I've done all her dirty work for her." I soothed, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go. Into the elevator boys."

We all stepped in. The doors closed of their own accord. "Your so interesting... so different. I have to say, I'm an instant fan. Looks like you've got a date with an Angel! Come to me now. Level Nine. Just follow the screams." Susie said over the intercom. I sighed, not really wanting to go back into that room full of dead cartoons. Bendy stayed next to me, looking almost as ticked as I felt. On the wall on our way down, someone had wrote 'CURSE THIS ELEVATOR'. The elevator groaned to a stop. "Come on, step out of your cage. There's a whole twisted world out here."

I rolled my eyes, already knowing what horrors awaited us. "Come on. I won't let her hurt either of you." I murmured. The three of us stepped out of the elevator. We descended down the staircase, and approached the large metal doors that were slowly opening at the end of the hall. Boris dashed ahead.

"Boris wait up!" Bendy shouted, as he ran after him. Unease prickled through my veins as I entered the room. I walked down the hall then took a right, and Boris and Bendy came into view. Boris was whimpering, and Bendy was trying to coax the wolf back into the elevator.

I walked over to the two. "I'm going ahead. I should be back soon." I told Bendy. He looked up at me, tears streaking down his face. My heart dropped. I kneeled down and opened my arms. Bendy rushed over and hugged me tightly, sniffling slightly. I patted between his horns. "Bendy, I know it looks bad here, but you need to act strong for Boris's sake. Besides, she is watching us..." I whispered to him, my voice trailing off. Bendy nodded, and let me go. He walked over to Boris and grabbed his hand. He began dragging the poor wolf out of the room. I waited until they were gone from view, watching with a worried expression before I smoothed my face clear. I took a left, and took the ramp leading to the other parts of the room.

"Look around. It took so many to make me so beautiful. Anything less then perfect, was left behind." Anger boiled through me, making my cheeks flush red. "I had to do it. She made me." Susie said.

I ignored her. On the right was another coffin. 'SUSIE' it was labeled. I looked at the wall to my left, seeing a flash of gold. As expected, there were more words. "DID THEY DESERVE THIS?'

I continued into the room where Susie was. The door closed behind me. In front of me on the floor, the words 'BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH' were written in gold ink. I walked forward, and waited for Susie to speak.

"Oh my. Look at those eyes of yours. They're so beautiful... I want to rip them out of your head!" Susie spat, pulling a lever in front of her. To the side, the piper she was electrocuting went still, gasping for breath.

"I know who you are. Your not Alice. Your Susie." I said, hoping to steer her mind away from my freakish eyes.

"Not anymore. Susie died a long time ago, and an angel rose up in her place." Susie countered, frowning at me.

"You don't have to do this anymore Susie. I can help you. I want to help you! Come with me and the boys, and we all will escape here." I pleaded.

"Ah yes. You have an ink demon wannabe and a perfect Boris." Susie leveled me with a sad stare. "Your so foolish. Don't you realize that we're locked in a box? Tell me, how are you even planning on getting out of here if none of the exits will open?" She asked. I considered this for a moment.

"If we cannot escape from here, then at least allow me to fix what Joey has done to you Susie. Please." I asked.

"Very well. You want to help me? You will need to go back out there. Fetch me some things, and avoid the true ink demon skulking around the floors." Susie said, a note of finality to her voice. My heart both soared and sank. On one hand, Susie didn't know that the Bendy that had been traveling with me WAS the ink demon. On the other hand, she still wanted me to be her errand girl. She might want Boris as well.

I sighed, resigned. "Return to the lift little errand girl. We have work to do." Susie said, before pulling a different lever. A metal wall fell between us. Screams started back up again.

I turned around, realizing that we actually had a civil conversation. 'I wonder what she meant about us being in a box?' I thought, as I made my way out of the now open door.

I walked back across the ramps and exited the room. I walked through the hallway, and came to the room where the lift was. "My machines are hungry. Gather me some spare parts." Susie demanded. Next to me, a device turned to reveal a wrench hanging for me to take. I took the wrench and walked over to the elevator. "There are so few rules to our world now. So little truths. But there's one rule we all know and respect down here. Beware the ink demon. Stay out in the open too long, and he will find you." She said, as I reached the elevator. I pressed the button to open the door, and entered it. Inside were both Bendy and Boris. "For if you see him, you better hide." She continued. "If you don't, well, I enjoyed our chat."

Grumbling to myself, I punched the button to level K. Boris and Bendy remained silent, holding onto one another. It appeared that Bendy had Boris almost calmed down. "Have you met him? The ink demon? They say he hears everything. Every creak of the floor. Every rustle of paper. I wouldn't run so fast if I were you. You never know what will draw him in." Susie said over the intercom.

I turned and smiled at Bendy. I walked over to him, and knelt down by him. "She thinks your another copy." I whispered to him. "That's why she's saying this. She thinks your still out there, trying to hunt me down."

Bendy tugged on my shirt. I turned my head so his mouth was by his ear. "Don't worry. I promise I won't do that to you again." He reassured me. I turned my head and smiled at him.

"Stay here with Boris. I'm just going to gather a few gears." I said. Boris at this point decided to cling onto Bendy, making it impossible for him to come with me anyway. While Bendy tried to convince Boris to let go of him, I dashed out of the elevator and up the small flight of stairs. Passing the little miracle station, I made a beeline over to the inky puddle next to the entrance to the next hallway. As expected, a searcher popped out, which I quickly hit twice before it disappeared. I walked down the hallway, noticing a piper coming my way.

Smacking it once, I failed to back away in time before it could hit me. It got me in the side, which wasn't much of a big deal. I finished it off with another swing and took the cog that it had been holding. I made my way over to the toy shelves. Passing a message saying 'WE'RE ALL HIS PLAYTHINGS', I walked over to the gearbox on the wall. Prying it open, I took out the gear that was inside it. I made my way over to a section with a sizable lump of ink in front of it, and approached the other gearbox. I retrieved the gear, and started back to the lift.

"Ah. That should be plenty. Return them to me. And try not to die on the way back." Susie said. Gritting my teeth, I walked over to the elevator. Bendy was still trying to coax Boris off of him. "Sammy said I had talent. He was always a good liar. Still, he was once a very handsome man." Susie told me.

"You do know Sammy never had a hand in replacing you. He loved your voice!" I protested. Susie remained silent. Once we reached level Nine, I turned to face the boys. Bendy, it seems has given up on trying to get away from Boris. He had settled against the floor with Boris still pressed against his side. He was patting the wolf on the back awkwardly.

I exited the lift and walked over to the trash can, dumping the gears inside. Susie started speaking again. "Have you seen them? The swollen ones! They're just stuffed full of extra thick ink. It makes me sick! And yet... it's the perfect thing for keeping myself together. If your going to catch them, your going to have to learn to move quietly. Come back to my door. I have something that you'll need."

I walked over to the contraption to the left of me and took the syringe. "Lets get this over with." I muttered. I took care of the searcher that spawned on my way to the lift, stabbing it twice with the needle. I entered the elevator, and punched the button to go to level eleven.

Once I got there, I took two steps out of the elevator. I could already hear the fisher walking down the hall. I approached it, and waited for it to get close. I dropped the syringe, knowing that I would need two hands for what I was about to do. It tried to swing it's head at me, but I managed to catch it. I heaved upward, lifting the fisher off of the ground. I smacked it's body against the ground until it dissolved like the rest of the ink creatures. I knelt down and got the syringe and collected the remaining ink on the floor. Standing up, I continued down the hall. In the next room was a swollen searcher. I tiptoed over to the creature and stabbed it in the back. It melted, leaving behind more ink.

I walked down the ink flooded hallway, coming to a room with a large glass pane. On the wall was the message "THE DRINKS WERE ON JOEY." Norman was walking behind the glass, making his way back to his own level. I felt sorry for him. Once he was gone, I entered the door on the left and walked into the other room. I waited a few moments before another swollen searcher popped up. This time I pounced on it, stabbing it.

"How sickening! It makes my skin crawl. But the task is done. Bring me back my equipment, please."

I walked over to the lift and closed the door to it. I decided a break was due. I reached over to Bendy, who was now sitting next to a sleeping Boris. I started petting between his horns. He sighed, and scooted over to me so I had better access to his head. He cuddled up against my side and laid his head in my lap. I smiled, scratching down his bony shoulders and onto his back. "Your awfully cuddly as of late." I mentioned.

"Your not making it easy to stay away you know." Bendy muttered. "Your warm and are more likely to give me attention if I'm next to you." I laughed at that, smiling warmly.

"Are you sure you just want attention or is it that Boris is just bad company?" I teased. Bendy huffed, now wriggling his way onto my lap, and curled his arms around my waist, hugging me.

"Is it bad that I want this much attention?" He asked, looking up into my eyes.

"Not at all. This is behavior that I would have seen more often in a six year old human child though, not a thirty something year old ink demon." I admitted.

"I honestly don't know how old I am.' Bendy mumbled. "I was a kid in my cartoons, so I guess I'm supposed to be a kid." I frowned, thinking over it.

'It makes sense.' I thought, as I continued to stroke Bendy's back. 'Even in the last loop, he acted like he was very young. Maybe he IS a child.' Bendy yawned, having gotten sleepy from getting too relaxed. I waited until he was asleep before I picked him up in my arms and rose from the floor. I walked over and pressed the Nine button and waited for us to reach our destination. Once we reached the floor, I gently placed Bendy next to Boris.

While the two snoozed away, Susie started speaking again once I dumped the syringe in the trashcan. "I'll make this simple. Look for valve panels. Turn the little wheels. Then bring me their power cords." I walked to the left and took the plunger.

"I'm not even going to bother to complain." I said, looking over the plunger. I walked over to the elevator and entered it. The boys were still sleeping peacefully. I hit the button for level P. Once we got there, I exited the elevator. I walked down the hall and took a left. Two rooms were in front of me, with glass covering the walls. I walked down the hall and encountered a striker. It came after me while I waited for it to try and hit me. Once it moved it's mechanical arm, I shifted to the left and planted a harsh kick to the creature's stomach. It fell backwards. I stabbed it's chest with the stick end of the plunger to finish it off. It melted away, leaving me a power cell.

I continued to collect power cells, encountering more searchers and a message that mirrored my thoughts. 'WHY AM I DOING THIS?' Upon taking the last power core, Susie's voice echoed over the intercom. "Quite the efficient little errand girl, aren't you?"

I ignored her and entered the lift. I leaned down and nudged Bendy. "Wha-?" He mumbled, sleep thick in his voice.

"Bendy, I need you to wake up. Susie's going to order me to chop your cut outs, and I'm planning on refusing her task. I need you awake in case she pulls a fast one on us." I whispered.

Bendy yawned and shook Boris awake. When they were both up, I hit the button for floor Nine. When we arrived there, I motioned for Boris and Bendy to come along with me. I tossed the power cores in the trash can.

"See those grinning demons? Let's remove them shall we?" Susie said.

I cut her off before she could say anything else. "Honey, breaking those cut outs has nothing to do with fixing you. Give me another task, because I refuse to get caught between you and the ink demon." I stated. A stunned silence spread across the room.

"Humph. And here I was thinking you wanted to escape this place." She growled. Before I could say anything else, Bendy cut in our conversation.

"You know toots, I would back off from threatening Henrietta. Because I have no problem coming after you miss Susie." Bendy growled, while I stared at him in horror.

"And what are you going to do, you little demon wannabe?" Susie retorted, amused.

Bendy glanced at me. "Maybe I can do _this_!" Bendy said, now reaching out with his ungloved hand towards the large metal door. Loud girlish screaming echoed from further up ahead along with loud crashes. I had a feeling that Bendy just did something to tick her off.

"OKAY, OKAY! STOP IT PLEASE!" Susie wailed, as Bendy slowly lowered his hand. Moments ticked by, before Susie started talking again. "Oh, NOW look at what you've done. Those disgusting wretches have wandered into my halls, and now they've gone unchecked! Kill them! Smash them into puddles! Don't let them get to your angel!" Susie cried.

I rolled my eyes as inky failures began spawning. Before I could do anything, Bendy tugged on my skirt. "Let me." He said. I watched as inky veins formed all around the room, avoiding the three of us. In the distance, the butcher gang members simultaneously melted on the stairs. The remaining inky puddles boiled, then bubbled no more.

"I need you to go down deeper. Down down down into the abyss. Say hello to an old friend. Sending you a little present. A little firepower. Take good care of it. It belonged to someone very special." Susie said.

I already knew what she was talking about. I walked over and took the tommy gun. "All rights boys. Let's go." I said, grinning mischievously. Bendy took one look at me, and frowned.

"I think I know what your planning now." Bendy said slowly. I winked at him, and walked over to the lift. Boris and Bendy hurried after me.

Grinning manically, I punched the button to level fourteen. I practically skipped over to Boris, to whom I gave the tommy gun. When the lift finally stopped, I sobered up a bit. "Ok, this is my plan boys. I'm going to get Norman to remember himself. If I can accomplish that, I can ask him to take Boris with him. When it's all over, I will come back up here and ask Boris to come along with me. I will introduce him to Norman, and we will meet up in level S. But until then, you two need to stay in the elevator. He can't calm down and start remembering if he feels threatened." I said giving the two of them stern looks.

I walked out of the elevator, and made sure that the boys closed the gate before I descended the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, I noticed yet another golden message on the wall. 'Friend or Foe?' I ran out to meet Norman, almost instantly catching his attention. He screamed and ran out to meet me. I felt a burning pain in my throat. Norman raised his hand again and this time dug it into my chest trying to rip out my still beating heart. Golden light filled my eyes as I found myself back in the inky tunnel.

Unlike last time, there were no more whispers. This time, I was surrounded by screams. People begged for mercy and cried out in confusion as I hurriedly ran out to the end of the tunnel. I reformed next to a Bendy statue feet away from Norman. Luck was not on my side seeing as he was staring at the statue, seemingly waiting for me to reappear. He ran over to me and picked me up by the throat. Higher and higher he lifted me before slamming me to the ground with painful force. I cried out in shock, as Norman lifted his boot above my face. My eyes widened as he slammed it onto my skull.

Golden light seared into my retinas as I found myself back in death. The inky tunnel wasn't firm under my feet anymore. The inky floor sucked at my feet, making it harder for me to take steps. It was annoying. The screaming had started up again, but was dying down to little whispers. When I managed to exit the tunnel, I found myself next to the Bendy statue again. Norman was gone this time. I dashed off into the distance, looking for him. Two minutes of looking later, I found him near an ink heart. He was lifting it up into his hands when I walked into view. Growls echoed from his speaker as he swung at me with the hand not holding the ink heart. I fell like a stone as Norman planted a foot on top of me, preventing me from surfacing from the inky floor. I slowly drowned there. Golden fire burned every cell of my body as I was thrown back into the tunnels. Excited whispering echoed around me as I began to exit once more. The tunnel was shorter this time. I fell from the air next to the Bendy statue.

This time, I pulled my backpack off, and rustled around for Norman's audio log. I grabbed hold of it, and slipped the pack back on me. In the distance I could hear Norman walking through the ink. I walked over to meet him. I rounded a corner, and saw him watching a snippet from the cartoon 'Tombstone Picnic.' I reached over to the audio log in my hand, and pressed play.

Norman's response was instantaneous. He whirled around, screeching. I looked up at his projector. Slowly, I pointed from the tape in my hand to Norman, who was oddly just standing there staring at me. The projector light dimmed. He raised his right arm and pointed at me, tilting his head to the side slightly. I got the feeling he was asking my name.

"It's me Norman. I'm Henrietta, remember?" I said, hoping that I wasn't going to get murdered again. Upon hearing my name, he froze. Crackling emitted from the speaker on his chest. Moments later Norman's gruff voice echoed out from it.

"Hen-Henrietta?" He asked. I nodded vigorously. He walked over to where I was standing, seemingly examining my form. The light from his projector settled on my face. "Your e-ey-eyes look diff-erent." He crackled. "Other then that, you look the s-same as when I last saw you." His voice was getting clearer.

"I blame the ink for my eyes." I said, frowning.

"Why are you here? You shouldn't have come back!" He asked.

"Joey." I said, knowing that it was self explanatory from there.

"Let me guess, he roped you in here too?" He questioned.

"Pretty much. Susie ordered me down here to get five ink hearts. But I'm not here just for that." I said, hoping Norman would agree to what I was about to ask of him.

"Oh? Why else are you down here?"

"I need your help Norman. I need to keep Boris safe from Susie. He's been helping me. If I go back up there with both the ink hearts and Boris, she will wait until I give her the hearts and will crash the elevator with us in it. Can you keep Boris safe with you while I round up everyone else here? I want to get everyone out, but I can't do it alone." I said.

Norman stared at me for a long moment. "Go get Boris. I will get you the ink hearts for Susie. Don't worry, I will keep Boris safe." He finally replied.

"Thank you Norman!" I said, glad that it worked out.

"Just get us out of here Henri. I am getting tired of this mess." I nodded and ran up over to the elevator.

Bendy and Boris were both waiting for me. The moment I approached, Bendy shot out of the elevator and was reaching for my arms. I picked him up, asking Boris to follow us.

We all met back at the clay Bendy statue. Norman had the hearts in his hand. I took the hearts as Norman waived Boris over. He ignored the imp who was clinging to me like his life depended on it. Boris hesitantly walked over so he was standing by Norman's side.

"Both of you please be safe." I said, looking from Boris to Norman. They nodded. Bendy turned to face Boris.

"Boris, I will see you later buddy!" Bendy stated. He seemed relieved, now that he knew that Boris would be safe. I made my way back over to the elevator. I pressed the button for level Nine.

When I placed the hearts in the trashcan, Susie started speaking again. "It looks like we have reached the end of our to do list. Take the lift. It's time to go home." She said.

I walked over to the lift, holding onto Bendy. The doors closed and the elevator started rising. Soon, Susie started talking again. We ignored her.

Laughter started. I tightened my hold on Bendy as the elevator started to fall.

**"Do you really think I would let you steal from me?! That was the most perfect Boris I have ever seen! I want it! I need it! And now he's gone because of you. I know a fitting punishment for the both of you. Let's see how you react Bendy when your precious creator is taken from you. Or better yet, lets see you lose your mind once she's DEAD!!!"** Susie screamed, as the elevator hit the last floor.

...

I coughed as dust floated around my face. I scrambled up, crying inky tears when moving stretched my severely bruised body. "No." I said, looking beside me in horror.

Henrietta was still on the elevator floor, surrounded in a pool of her own blood. She wasn't moving. I rushed over and listened carefully. She wasn't breathing. Her heart wasn't beating!" She looked so pale, like she had turned into a ghost. I reached out to her hand, wanting the comfort she always seemed to provide for me. Her hand was cold. Inky tears blinded my vision as ragged sobs ripped from my throat. It wasn't fair! Just when I felt like things where looking up, Henrietta is taken from me. What was even worse is that she wasn't reforming like she normally would!

"Henri? Henri wake up!" I wailed. "Please! I don't want to be alone again. Please don't leave me Henrietta!!" I whimpered. I felt like I was drowning in sadness. It was getting hard to even think.

Pain lanced my body, as I felt my form shifting back into that tall monster that I was created as. My bones stretched and my hands grew. My eyes were soon covered in ink, blinding me. My body lengthened as my bowtie melted off. I screamed loudly, as pain burned through my mind. Everything was getting hazy. 'The angel. The angel will pay for this!' I remember thinking, as my mind faded into static.

...

I was in Joey's house. Joey was in front of me once more, trying to tell me something. I reached forward and grabbed Joey by the neck, screaming at him. Golden light fell from my skin as I found my hold on Joey slipping. I glanced down at my hands only to find that they were fading away.

........

"Ow... I groaned as I slowly lifted myself off of the floor. Blood was caked onto my skin, making a rather unpleasant feeling when I moved. The world was hazy, but came into focus quickly. I stretched out, finding that I was now feeling better then I had in years. I looked around, starting to worry about Bendy.

He was gone. All that was left was a white bowtie on the ground.


	4. Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't like this chapter for some reason, so some details are vague. Chapter five will be better though.

Worry flooded my mind as it slowly sunk in that Bendy was gone. 'Why would he leave me here?' I wondered sadly, as I stared at the bowtie on the ground. I looked behind me, noting that the floor surrounding where I had risen was covered in a pool of blood. I lifted my right hand to the back of my head, not feeling any source for all the blood.

'That's odd. I remember my head hitting the elevator floor first. I smashed it pretty hard too...' My thoughts trailed off as I turned my attention back to the bowtie. I reached down and picked up the white bowtie, pinching it between my fingers. The soft little thing was probably Bendy's.

'He wouldn't leave this here. Something must have happened.' I frowned as I considered this. 'Maybe he was-' My thoughts were cut off when I heard loud, agonized wailing in far off in the distance. My eyes widened, realizing that it sounded like Bendy. 'Susie must have him!' I thought, alarm bells going off in my mind. 'I have to go find him!'

I slipped the bow on the bottom of my braid for safe keeping as I turned my attention back to the hallway, seeing a message in gold on the right wall. 'HE CAN'T BE SAVED' I felt my face pale reading it, realizing that I had lingered here too long already. Knowing from the last loop that the wheel was in Grant's office, I chose to head there next. I dashed down the hall, and took a right, heading for Grant's office.

At the end of the path was another room to my left, holding two doors with a broken Bendy cutout between them. I quickly opened the door on the right, and entered the room, ignoring the inky writing all over the walls. I made my way over to the corner of the room where the wheel was supposed to be. I looked down, noticing that the wheel was gone. 'Damn it!' I thought, looking around the room franticly for the missing wheel.

Upon coming to the conclusion that the wheel was not here, I was forced to make my way over to the archives with the hopes that the wheel was still on the door. I left the room and dashed down the hall, finding that the wheel was innocently sitting on the door.

I stared at the wheel suspiciously, not really knowing what to think. Deciding that it really didn't matter, I twisted the wheel and entered the room. I stepped into the room, belatedly realizing that this is the room where I first encountered the lost ones.

The spotlights flicked on one by one, illuminating the inky figures standing motionless on the stage. I looked up at them, feeling something bubbling up from my throat. I coughed harshly into my left arm, spitting up flecks of gold ink. I stared at the fluid staining my arm, as my vision suddenly started to spin. I slowly sank to my knees, feeling my eyes itch and burn. The ink was bubbling up again in my throat, as I found myself struggling to breath. Ink dribbled out of my mouth as I slumped to the ground, pain rippling through my head. I could hear whispering all around me, like I was back in the puddles trying to reform after being killed. The whispering only amplified the growing pains in my head. The pain was so bad that I would have been screaming had ink not been clogging up my throat. A minute passed, filled with choked gasps and blinding pain.

Two minutes later, the whispering started to die down. The ink had all been coughed out of my throat. The pain was now a dull throb in the back of my head. I pushed myself off of the floor with shaky arms.

I knew something was wrong with me. What just happened was proof of that. Spitting up ink should have been concerning for me. Instead, I found myself worrying more about Bendy then myself.

Last loop I was too late to save Boris. I can only imagine what suffering Bendy was enduring at the moment.

I forced my gaze to settle on the side of the room where the door to the library was. I shuffled over to the door, not even caring that the lost ones had disappeared.

Walking in the room, I walked around the outer circle of the room, looking for the books that needed to be pushed in. I pushed in three books on the outside of the wall of books, before making my way to the inner part of the library. I noticed yet another broken Bendy cutout that was laying in pieces on the floor, as I scoped out the room for the remaining two books. Two books later, I walked over to the door labeled PRIVATE.

The door slowly opened, allowing me to slip inside. There was a large, wooden pathway to the left of my that was built along the room's wall up until the wall directly in front of me. In the middle of the room was a gaping hole in the ground that seemingly had no end. Following the path to the left, I hurried over to the room where I could get ink for the gent machine, passing two more broken cutouts stuck in the wall. "Susie must be having a field day." I muttered, thinking back to the other smashed Bendy cutouts. I turned to my left and pulled the lever that would open the ink pool. I then walked over to the wheel and turned it.

Like the last loop, a swollen searcher emerged from the inky liquid with a gob of thick ink sticking off of it's back. I swiftly plucked the gob of ink away, and hurried on back over to the gent machine. I switched the picture on the machine's dial to a gear, then placed the ink in the gent machine. Pulling the lever, I waited for it to spit out the gear.

Moments later, a gear hit the floor. I picked it up and rushed over to the pulley missing a gear. I placed it where it should have been and walked over to the dock, waiting for the cart to reach me. From where I was standing, I could see a little golden heart drawn on the side of a wooden box by the door I had to get to. I stepped on the cart as soon as I could, wanting to get to Susie as soon as possible. I waited impatiently for the cart to bring me over the middle of the room, cursing it when it stalled momentarily halfway across like it did during the last loop. As soon as it docked, I climbed out of it and hurried to the door.

I raced through the torn up hallway and into the next room. I came to a screeching halt when I heard Susie's voice. "I see you there, little errand girl. Your angel is always watching. What is it that keeps you going? Is it the thrill of the hunt? The thirst for your freedom? Or perhaps... your just looking for a little friendly demon... Better hurry little errand girl. Bendy is having trouble keeping himself together." Susie taunted, making me feel sick with anger.

I scurried up the stairs, passing a door enclosed in the wall bearing more golden ink. 'EXIT?' Further up the stairs I went, pausing momentarily at an Alice Angel poster. 'SHE'S TOYING WITH YOU', the ink told me. I turned my gaze back to the stairs and continued moving forward. After several minutes of climbing steps, a sticker of Bendy came into view. It looked like something had it half melted off the wall, so that the head was just a hanging goopy mess.

Following the rest of the path, I entered the room where I saw yet another lost one up on the balcony. Unlike in the last loop, this one simply stood in the middle of the balcony, gazing down at me. I could taste ink in my mouth again, and the almost forgotten throbbing in the back of my head made itself known.

The lost one watched as I staggered over to the door to the other room, being eerily silent. I steeled myself before opening the door, knowing that there would be a room full of lost one's inside. I placed my hand on the handle of the door, and closed my eyes as I opened it and stepped inside. On the count of three, I opened my eyes, only to be attacked by the worst headache that I had ever experienced in my life.

I felt myself falling to the ground, unable to move from all the pain. The lost ones wandered over to me, curious about my actions. Laying on my side afforded me a view of the inky failures as they crept even closer to me to the point where I could have reached out my arm to touch them.

My vision flashed gold, as all the lost ones in my view reeled back away from me in surprise. The headache abated drastically, more then enough for me to be able to sit up and watch what was happening.

The few lost one's that had been in my view had little inky bubbles popping on the surface of their form. As I watched, the lost ones sunk to the ground, their ink now violently reshaping itself. The other lost ones were distracted by the sight, and I took my opportunity to dash to the other side of the room. I scooped up the flashlight and dove into the vent.

I crawled forward as fast as I could, taking note of another broken Bendy cutout that I could see through the dented grate on the vent. Bendy did not appear this time.

When I finally managed to find the exit to the vents, I dropped the flashlight and took off for the stairs. Passing another broken cutout, I made for the design room that was dedicated to the Bendy theme park that Bertrum was supposed to be making. 'REGRETS, JOEY?' Golden ink questioned, written on the planning board. I pulled the switch for storage Nine and dashed back down the stairs to the newly opened door. I entered the next room and took a left down the stairs and began walking over to the games area. I scooped up the three balls and quickly set to shooting down cans. Luck was on my side this time, because I managed to clear the game on the first try.

I grudgingly walked over to the shooter game and lifted the toy gun, hating the game itself. After shooting a bunch of cutouts, I managed to win the game with minimal difficulty. I rushed over to the door that was now opening to the left of me. On a gear picture on the wall, was another message. 'RELIVING THE PAST DOES NOT CHANGE IT.' I slipped inside, and rushed over to the lever at the end of the small room. I quickly pulled it, then made my way over to the power station.

I pulled the lever labeled as One, and went off for the research and design rooms.

After staring at the message on the wall saying 'DREAM TO BIG AND YOU WILL FALL', I collected three empty bacon soup cans as I crept down to the bottom of the stairs. Surrounding a burning barrel were the members to the butcher gang next to both of the rooms that I needed to enter. I threw a can to the right, distracting the butcher gang enough so that I could slip by them unnoticed.

There was a lost one in this room trapped in a cage to my right. On the bottom border to the cage were more words written in golden ink. 'PLEASE DON'T CRY'.

Ignoring the lost one, I turned the corner and flicked the power switch hanging on the back wall. I quietly crept over to the door again, and threw a can far in front of me. I waited until all the inky failure's backs were turned before I made a dash for the other room. I pulled the power lever for the other room and crept back over to the doorway. I threw my last can far out to the side of the room and made a break for the stairs.  
I was spotted, but it didn't matter because I managed to reach the stairs before they could have hurt me.

I quickly went back over to the power station and pulled the second lever. Dashing over to Bertrum's room, I passed two more broken Bendy cutouts before entering the room with the large circus ride. I had barely glanced at the message in gold on the wall saying 'AGAIN & AGAIN AROUND & AROUND.' I walked over to the desk where an audio log was resting. Knowing from the last loop that it would wake Bertrum up, I pressed play on the button and headed to the side of the room. As expected, Bertrum went off on a little tangent before breaking the desk where the audio log was. I quickly dashed forward to get the axe that fell out of the desk, and retreated to the side of the room once more. I waited for the carousel's arms to go lax on the ground before running in and taking off the joints to it. This was repeated several times before Bertrum was defeated.

Dropping the broken axe, I walked over to the closed up machine. "Sorry Bertrum. I will fix you up later and get you out of here." I said, before going over to the power lever in the room on the side and pulling it. Behind Bertrum were the words 'TIME WOUNDS ALL HEELS'.

I made my way out of the room and over to the power station, pulling the third lever. I walked over to the maintenance room where I encountered Norman in the last loop.

Boris was waiting for me right inside the door with Norman. Boris tackled me to the ground in a hug while Norman took notice of the missing demon that should have been tagging along. Norman pulled the excited wolf off of me and offered me a hand up off of the floor. With a groan, I took his hand. He pulled me up and grabbed hold of my face. I found myself squinting as Norman examined me, finding the light on his projector a bit too bright for my liking.

"Good grief women, what did you do to yourself?!" Norman demanded, letting go of my face. I frowned, not knowing what was wrong.

"Norman, what do you mean?" I questioned.

At that point, Boris started staring at me as well. "You look as pale as a ghost Henrietta. Your covered in blood AND in golden ink. What happened!?" Norman growled.

I groaned, not really wanting to have to talk about this. I had to get to Bendy! "Norman, the blood is from the elevator crash. The ink on the other hand, well... I started coughing it up earlier. Look Norman, I think Susie has Bendy. I really need to hurry along and go get him." I said.

Boris started whining, and Norman just stared at me. "You need to be careful. Spitting up normal ink is bad enough, but golden ink is just plain unheard of. If it wasn't golden ink your spitting up, I would say that your turning into an ink creature." He said, now pointing over to the room down the stairs. "Pull the lever that says lift control, then pull the power lever on the upper part of the room. It should power up the last switch so you can get to Susie."

I nodded as I ran off to the levers. On my way back, I passed a crude drawing of a door on the wall in gold. I walked over to the door out of the room, belatedly remembering that the door had been ripped off during the last loop by Bendy. But unlike the last loop, Bendy wasn't here to open the door.

Boris and Norman were staring at the door quietly, not knowing what to do. I glared at the door, wondering what it would take to open it. I glanced over at the door drawn on the wall, getting a rather stupid idea.

Norman watched as I started fumbling around in my backpack, confused. Boris simply smiled at me like he knew what I was planning. I pulled out a slightly flattened feather quill that was devoid of any ink. I walked over to the metal door, and started scratching the quill on the wall right next to it.

I scratched a button onto the wall, feeling like a complete idiot while I was doing it. When I had finished, I glared at the wall, knowing that I was just being stupid. I was about to turn away when I noticed gold slowly appearing where I had drawn. I watched, shocked as an actual button then formed from the golden ink.

I turned to Boris who had a rather smug look in his eyes. "Boris. You knew I could do that, didn't you?" I asked. Boris started knocking on the wall.

"I knew it since you pulled that feather quill out of thin air. Your the creator. You CREATE. It only makes sense that here, you can bring your drawings to life." Boris replied, earning a look from Norman, who didn't know morse code.

"Cheeky wolf." I muttered, as I hit the button on the wall. As I had hoped, the doors slid open, allowing me to exit the room. I stuffed the quill into my shirt pocket.

I flicked the final switch at the power station before I headed over to the haunted house ride. Norman and Boris had followed me out here, refusing to stay back in the maintenance room. I turned to both of them. "All right. Time for me to go and have a talk with miss Susie. Stay safe you two. If I am not back here soon, then go to the vault and wait for me there. You may run into the butcher gang down there, but it is where I will end up next if I don't return here. And if you see another Boris with a mechanical arm and another angel that is missing her halo... well, they are Thomas Conner and Allison Pendle. They will not remember their lives before the ink. Just leave them be."

Norman nodded, and tapped a rather bored Boris on the shoulder. He pointed to the gaming area, where Boris took off to.

I walked inside the room. Behind the carts was a message saying turn back. Another message in gold said 'THERE'S NO TURNING BACK NOW'. I climbed into one of the carts that would bring me to Susie. The cart started moving.

"And now, the ride truly begins, Henri. Come on in, and pretend that it's all just a bad dream." Susie said. "It's a funny thing. How for so long I had been thinking that I needed insides from failures to make myself perfect. He led me to this you know. Our former boss. But you, unlike him are trying to turn me back into what I was before. Why Henri? What is your goal here? You can either turn us all into toons or you could save us all. After all, you are the CREATOR!" Susie continued, actually sounding like Alice angel for once. "You were the reason why that demon continued to live after he came out of that machine as a failure. It was your drawing that was used to create him you know. From the start he was always searching for someone... searching for you. Your the only reason why he managed to keep himself together Henri. He never gave up hope that you could help him. But now... now things have finally fallen into place! Come on in. I have something to show you."

I didn't know what to expect this time. Boris wouldn't be trying to kill me so would Susie be out here this time?

My thoughts were confirmed when the cart finally entered the room where I fought Boris. Susie was in the middle of the room, looking into a handheld mirror. Her missing eye was back in place and her mouth was no longer torn. Her halo was now golden and floating above her head.

I hopped out of the cart as soon as I could and marched over to Susie. She lowered the the mirror from her face. "Ah, and here you are at last! I have to say, my current form couldn't have been accomplished without all the things you fetched for me. Looks like I didn't really need Boris's insides after all." She said, as I got closer to her. "In fact, I was even able to repel that wretched ink demon when he came after me thanks to you."

My face flushed with anger as I finally reached Susie. I glared at her, only to have Susie calmly return my gaze. "Where is Bendy?!" I growled. Susie smiled at me.

"Oh the ink demon? As I said before, I repelled him from me. If he managed to survive the brunt force of angelic warding turned against him, I would imagine he would be curled up somewhere... being a hostile mistake that's probably trying to die now."

I grabbed Susie by the throat, lifting her into the air. "Bendy is like my child you idiot. If you think I'm just going to let this slide then your wrong." I hissed, as I threw her against the gent machine that she was next to. Her head slammed into the frame of it, giving me enough time to plant a foot on her stomach as she slid down to the ground in an inky heap.

"And what are you planning to do to me? Hurt me? Your wasting your time. He thinks your dead now, so he has no drive to keep living. I would be spending my time looking for him!" Susie mocked, a triumphant look on her face as she tried wiggling from underneath my shoe. This lasted a grand total of a three seconds before she started screaming at the top of her lungs as her form violently started bubbling. I stepped away from her, watching in shock as her form slowly melted into an inky puddle. I heard footsteps to the right of me only now realizing that I had taken too long talking talking to Susie.

I looked over to see both Tom and Allison threatening me silently with their weapons.

 


	5. Woes of the Creator

"Tom, how long has she been asleep?"

Tom stared through the jail that had been set up for their human guest. The women screamed danger but looked so tired, so exhausted. She was ill too- every once in a while her breathing would deform into throaty gurgles, like she was struggling to breath around liquid in her throat.

The lady had fainted moments after she saw us. She was covered in what I could barely remember as blood and in gold and black ink. The fierceness that had shown in her eyes when she was awake... the desperation... it spelled danger to whoever was on the receiving end of her wraith.

Strangers were bad news here. Not many creatures that lived down were sentient or even smart, but that didn't keep them from being dangerous. This person looked to be both.

I turned to Allison who was sitting on the cot nearby. I walked over to my cot and grabbed a paper that we had raided from one of the work desks upstairs and a pen to write with. I scribbled down the allotted time that our guest had been out of it, then showed it to Allison.

"She's been asleep for five hours? How much longer do you think she will be out of it?" I shrugged, not really knowing them answer. Allison sighed, then got up from her cot and walked over to where the prison was. I didn't have to see her to know that she was observing the stranger again. "She doesn't look like she's going to wake up anytime soon. I'm starting to get worried."

I huffed and got up off of my cot. I walked over to where Allison was standing and placed a hand on her shoulder. I gestured to the door, and pointed to myself.

"All right Tom. You be careful out there." I nodded, and walked out the door.

...

I was a mess. A mess of ink, blood and tired limbs splayed out on the floor, which I was pretty sure that I had just fallen on. Rolling off one's cot and crashing on the floor was a less then ideal way of waking up in my opinion. Sadly, my opinion didn't really matter in this situation. Grumbling to myself, I wrenched myself upward and slowly got up from the floor.

"Your awake."

I whipped my head over to the grate separating me from the rest of the room. Allison was standing outside of it watching me with an amused expression on her face.

"You say that like I was asleep for a long time. Speaking of which, how long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"Oh, I'd say around six, maybe seven hours at this point." Allison responded, now frowning at me. "You gave both me and Tom quite the scare when you just passed out right in front of us." She remarked, walking over to the boarded off entrance to my cage. "Here, you must be hungry. I got you some bacon soup." Allison held out the soup from between the planks of wood for me. I walked over and gently took the soup from her.

"Thank you Allison." I said, feeling like my throat was filled with sand. It took me a moment before I remembered that she hadn't introduced herself yet. Allison stared at me, eyes wide and mouth open.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" She questioned, sounding nervous. I quickly took a sip of the soup trying to rid myself of the sore feeling in my throat. It helped.

I looked up at Allison, narrowing my eyes at her. "I used to be a worker here. I'm Henrietta Stein. I used to be the head animator. As for how I know who you are... you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." I finished. Allison looked intrigued.

"Can I hear it anyway?" She asked. Frowning, I let my gaze drift over to the left of me. I looked up at the spoon hanging on the wall. I looked back over to Allison's hopeful face, thinking.

"There were two workers here who voiced Alice Angel. The first one was Susie Campbell. The second, Allison Pendle. I have met Susie before, so I recognized her voice when she was having me do errands for her on the upper levels. Susie was the Alice that kept on trying to make herself beautiful. I have not met Allison, but I have reason to believe that you are her." I said, choosing my words carefully.

"What makes you think that I'm Allison Pendle?"

"Tom. He's very good with machinery, isn't he?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes. What about it?" She questioned back.

I looked around the cell for my backpack. Upon not finding it, I looked up at Allison. "Can you please give me back my backpack. There's two audio logs in there that will help me answer your questions." Allison stared at me suspiciously, before walking over to the left of the room where her bed was. Moments later she came back carrying the backpack.

"It was Tom's idea to take your stuff away from you. He thought you might be hiding something in there." She said, as she handed the backpack between the wooden planks to me.

I gave Allison a sour look before taking the backpack and opening it up. I pulled out Tom and Wally's audio log. I showed it to Allison. "Listen to this." I said, as I pressed the play button on the log.

" _Alright let's go over this again. If the pressure goes over 45, I screw the safety bolt in tighter, right?"  
_

_"No! For the last time, you do that, you'll blow every pipe in this place! If it reaches 45, you unhook the safety switch."_

_"You sure? You know, this sounds harder than comparing ear wax to bee's wax!"_

_"Look, it's not that difficult! Just keep an eye on the gauge!"_

_"Look pal, if you think I'm doing my job AND yours, I'm outta here!"_

"As you can gather from the tape, Thomas was a worker for the gent company who was trying to teach Wally how to do his job. I am willing to bet that if you could get Tom's attention by calling him Conner."

"So what does this have to do with me?" She quiped.

"Well, I found an audio log left by Susie Campbell. She mentioned your name when she was talking about how her voice position was replaced by you. I'm implying that if you draw connections between the people down here and the workers who used to work here, you might just start identifying each other." I finished, tucking the tape back in my backpack. I slid the backpack under my cot and picked up the bowl of bacon soup. As I started eating, Allison finally turned her attention elsewhere. When I finished, I placed the empty bowl on the wooden board and walked back over to the cot, feeling tired again.

...

Blinking my eyes open, I saw Tom and Allison by the door. It appeared that Allison was about to leave the hideout again. She was talking to Tom, who was looking a little short of depressed. "It's only for a few hours. No need to worry. I won't go far... Only up to Level Six. Just stay here. Keep an eye on Henri, ok? I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise." Allison assured him, before leaving the room. The door clicked shut.

Tom smacked his axe against his metal hand, turning his gaze over to me. I rolled off of the cot. I walked over to the barricaded doorway, waiting patiently as Tom dragged over a chair and sat down in front of me. I kept a blank look on my face as Tom started smacking the axe against his hand again, looking like he was trying to intimidate me. Sighing, I poked my face between the wooden planks so I was getting a clear view of the male. I continued to watch him try threatening me with the same blank look before raising my right eyebrow at him.

"You can stop with that Tom. I am not a threat to you, or to Allison." I said calmly, watching as the Wolf stopped what he was doing. He glared at me for a moment, before continuing his actions. I stared at him a little longer before letting my expression morph into a stern look. "Look, I get it already. You don't trust me. You probably don't like me. Consider that message received." I growled, upset with how Tom was acting. "Just keep in mind Tom, I'm not the reason why we're all trapped here. I'm a victim too. Just one who's managed to keep their humanity." I finished, walking back over to the cot to take a nap. "I'm taking a nap Tom. Goodnight."

...

When I woke up, I pulled out my picture of Bendy from my backpack. It was the one that kept on moving whenever I wasn't watching it. I took a look at what the little demon was doing this time.

It was laying flat on the page, it's face smushed against an invisible floor. It had flecks of ink surrounding the drawing, like ink was melting off of it. I frowned, noticing that the little doodle was off model in some places. It's arms were dripping out of shape, and it's horns were misshapen. It only had one hand bearing no gloves. The left leg was twisted at an awkward angle, making it look like the doodle was sporting a broken leg.

I pulled out my pen and started to draw a little inkwell beside the demon. When I was done, I tapped the picture, hoping to get it's attention.

"Henri." I looked up from my drawing, noticing Allison standing by the doorway. "Here. You must be hungry." She said, pushing a bowl of bacon soup over so I could reach it. I stood up off of the floor, and walked over to the door. She smiled sadly at me. "Sorry. It's all we have." She walked to the left of the room, where her bed was. Tom walked over and placed his metal hand on the board, surrounding the bowl of soup. I stared up at him, frowning as he swiped the dish onto the floor.

"Honestly Tom. Your just wasting food at this point." I called, as he left the hideout.

I turned my attention back over to the picture of Bendy on the ground. I noticed it's hand had moved, supposedly reaching for the bottle of ink that I had drawn for it. The rest of it remained the same.

...

A little while later, Allison was back to painting on the walls. I started watching her. She mentioned how it was a little creepy that I was watching and explained how she met Tom. I remembered the last loop good enough to know that Allison was about to give me the seeing tool.

"Let me show you something." Alice said, dropping the paintbrush she had been holding. She pulled out the tool that I had long since had no more use for. "A while back I was mapping one of the upper levels... when I noticed something reflecting off a piece of glass. I held up the glass, looked through, and on the wall behind me was a hidden message! Right there, in plain sight! So I kept looking... and found more and more messages everywhere in the studio! But you can't see them with your eyes. Only through this. Take a look!" She said, pushing the tool over so I could reach it. I smiled sadly at her, and slid the tool back.

"I don't need it Allison. I can already see the messages made of gold ink." Allison stared at me.

"How can you see them? I can't, and neither can Tom!" She asked, curiously looking at my eyes. I gave her a faint smile and shook my head.

"I don't know. I just know I can see them." I murmured.

"Do you think it has something to do with all the gold ink you keep on coughing up?" She questioned. I shook my head.

"I could see the hidden messages before I started coughing up gold ink. So it can't be it." I replied. Allison took the tool back, frowning at me.

"I wish I could see them like you can..." She muttered.

...

"That was really stupid, Tom! You shouldn't have gone out there!" Allison growled, as she hastily tinkered with Tom's mechanical arm. "Now that he's seen you, its only a matter of time... before they find us here." Allison looked up from her work to see me standing at the door, watching what was going on. She waved, only for Tom to quickly turn his head to see her. He looked back at me and started hitting his axe against his metal hand.

"So, who did Tom run into? Bendy?" I asked, trying to mask the hope rising up in my voice.

"No, he ran into the projectionist and a Boris clone." I remained silent, knowing better then to speak up. I walked back over to the cot and tried to go back to sleep, desperately hoping that Bendy was going to survive this loop.

...

"We can't just leave her! Not with the projectionist right outside the door!" Allison cried, arguing with Tom.

"What's going on?" I asked, already knowing what was about to happen.

"He's coming. We have to move on!" Allison relayed, looking panicked. "Tom! We have to let her out!" Allison said, as she tried to pull the wooden boards away with her bare hands.

I watched as Tom laid a hand on her shoulder, effectively stopping Allison's attempts at freeing me. "It's okay Allison." I said calmly. I pointed at the wall in front of me. "She will leave you for dead." I read, looking her in the eyes. She looked like she was about to start crying. "Go on. I will find my own way out." Allison and Tom just stared at me for a moment, judging the sincerity in my voice.

"I'm sorry!" Allison said, as both her and Tom left the hideout. Leaving me to my own devices.

I quickly made sure that everything I had was safely stored into the backpack before slinging it on my back. I rushed over to the left and grabbed hold of the spoon and pulled it. As expected, a hidden wall opened up. I rushed over into the bathroom, ignoring the golden writing trying to aid me. I slid the top off of the toilet and retrieved the gent pipe. I turned back over to the boards and started cracking them down.

As I stepped over the debris, the exit door swung open. I looked over at the door, seeing Norman stepping inside. I quickly scanned over him, finding that he wasn't harmed. I rushed over to him, both happy and angry to see him again. "Norman, why are you here? Did something happen?" I questioned, now noticing Boris hesitantly entering the room.

Boris whined and dashed over to pull me in a hug. Norman shrugged his shoulders. "We found Bendy, but he's in bad shape. He must have run into Susie at some point because he is covered in angelic sigils. We started looking for you when being near him became dangerous." Norman said, somehow managing to look worried even with a projector for a head.

"I need to get there as fast as possible then. Norman, can you create a portal to the vault?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't have to take the barge across the inky river. Norman shook his head.

"The area where he's in is too heavily affected by the ink veins that he creates when he tries to kill lesser ink creatures. Any portal I make near there will collapse." He said, crushing my hopes. I huffed, and grabbed Boris's arm.

"Come on you two. We have a little ways to go, so we need to get going." I grumbled, as I started to lead the two out.

We started through the decrepit hallway, only stopping to take down the searcher that spawned from the ink puddle. We passed a clay Bendy statue before coming to a doorway. On the right of me, another searcher formed. It was swiftly taken care of with two hits from the pipe. We took a left through another, larger doorway. I ran ahead to the flooded inky room where the last searcher would have formed. As expected, it rose up from the surrounding ink and tried to attack me. I smashed the pipe into it's face, taking it out without difficulty. I glanced behind me, seeing that Norman was coaxing Boris to take the ramp across the room.

Norman shoved Boris ahead, as he waded through the flooded floor over to the end of the hall. I rolled my eyes as I walked forward, a skittish Boris following a little ways behind me.

We came into the next room just in time to see Allison and Tom's barge sailing ahead in the inky river. Norman turned his attention to the floor where another message had been written. This led to Boris looking over at me with a confused expression, hoping that I would tell him what was written there. "All right boys. There's something in the river. I will launch the barge, and Boris will need to operate the lever that turns on the paddle wheel." I said, now turning my gaze over to Norman. "The paddle wheel with get jammed with thick ink often, so we need to keep an eye on it and clear it out before the river monster gets too close." With that, I pulled the lever to launch the barge, waiting for it to sink downward before pulling the lever again. This time, the barge slid into the river.

Boris ran ahead and climbed in the boat with me and Norman following him. Boris started the engine and pulled the lever to make the boat move while me and Norman turned our gaze to the paddle wheel.

For the first minute, nothing happened. We came into an open area where another barge was docked before trouble started. The wheel got clogged with ink as Boris started whimpering up ahead, having seen the giant hand tear down the other barge. I smacked the ink off the right side of the wheel with the pipe I was holding while Norman simply flicked off the remaining ink globs that kept us motionless. The second we got it clear, the barge started moving again as the hand rose up in the ink ahead of us.

Upon seeing the hand, Norman screeched. "We're being chased by a freaking hand?!" He exclaimed, turning his neck so that the light of the projector was pointed at my face. He had the light to his projector turned to a painful brightness, making it seem like he was glaring at me. I flinched away from him, knowing that I could have given the both of them a better explanation.

"Be thankful that your not operating this barge by yourself, like I did the last time I was on this contraption!" I grumbled in response, feeling glum already from seeing the swollen hand. Norman started up a round of static filled cursing, as he turned his attention back to the wheel.

We both continued to clear the wheel when it got clogged up, keeping up a constant mantra of swears whenever the hand got too close. Norman was angry, I was feeling depressed and Boris was most likely trying his best not to start cowering from fear. It was a relief to all of us when we passed the large archway that led to the lost village. Norman was the first to climb out, while I worriedly checked on Boris whose hand was locked onto the lever.

I gently pried the wolf's fingers off of the lever and quickly pulled him out of the barge. No sooner did our feet hit the wooden planks did the barge start sinking into the inky abyss. We quickly walked over the planks to the village that was cobbled together by the lost ones and the searchers. Painted onto the walls were several different messages in gold and in black ink, making my mood sink even lower as I read them once more. The three of us walked ahead, me forgetting that Sammy was at the end of the room behind the barricaded doorway. Our attention was drawn over there when Sammy started chopping down the boards, swinging his axe wildly in the air.

 _"BETRAYED!!! ABANDONED!!!"_ He yelled, as he rushed after me. Boris ran off over to ink river while Norman stood next to me, frozen in what appeared to be shock. I dashed away, leading an angry musician away from Norman. _"I trusted you! I gave you everything!"_ He screamed, as he swiped where I was just standing moments before.

I yipped as the axe was swung dangerously close to my shoulder, encouraging me to pick up my pace as I ran over to one of the building's doors. _"And you left me to rot! Why? WHY?!_ He growled, his voice distorting. I fumbled with the knob momentarily before Sammy caught up from behind me. He raised his axe to cut me down only to be pushed aside by Norman, who was now screeching angrily at him. He lingered nearby, trying to draw Sammy's attention away from me.

"Sammy! Stop! Listen to me!" Norman crackled, his voice sounding more like static then normal. As Norman tried talking to him, Sammy grabbed hold of a few of the wires that were hanging behind Norman's projector head and pulled them out of their sockets. This resulted in Norman sinking to the ground screeching as he lost his balance. I ran over to Sammy and struck the back of his head, turning his attention back over to me. I lured him away from Norman as Boris snuck back over to him to drag him out of the way.

I started running as Sammy chased after me, only barely managing to avoid being hit by the axe that he was swinging for my side. I quickly turned when I reached the wall, and waited for Sammy to get up close, remembering from the last loop how he acted when he lost his mask. Moments later, I hit Sammy's face from underneath with the gent pipe, making his mask fly off of his face.

 _"No! Don't look at me. Stay away..."_ He cried, now covering his face with his black inky hands. He ran away from me to the middle of the room, giving me a chance to glance over to where Norman had fallen, seeing that Boris was plugging the ripped wires back into his projector head. As he worked, I walked over to Sammy cautiously, already knowing that he was feigning weakness.

I approached the front of him, getting close enough so that I could reach out and touch him. I wasn't surprised when Sammy grabbed hold of my arms. _"Ah! You lied to me!"_ He growled, lifting me off of the ground and shaking me. _"You said I'd be free!"_  Sammy held me higher in the air before throwing me to the ground. _"Well I'm going to free you now! Free your head right off of your shoulders!"_ Sammy raised his axe, getting ready to chop off my head. I saw Tom creeping up behind Sammy, axe raised and ready to impale it in Sammy's head. _"Sheep, sheep, sheep... it's time for... slee-"_

"SAMMY STOP!!! WE NEED HER ALIVE!" A feminine voice called. Sammy lowered the axe, looking shaken.

 _"Susie?"_ He whispered, as he turned to the right. I pushed myself off the ground in time to see a human Susie Campbell yanking the axe out of Sammy's hands. _"Your... your alive? How are you even human?!"_ He asked, awed by her new appearance. Susie turned and pointed at me.

"Sammy, she's the reason why I'm back to myself again. I don't know how she did it, but when she touched my skin I started changing." She said, looking at me. Tom had lowered his axe and Allison had made an appearance beside him. Boris came over to me, walking beside Norman who was wired back up. I found myself the center of attention as everyone in the room turned to me, staring at my face.

I shrank away from their gaze, unsettled by the looks they were giving me. Allison walked over to me and placed an hand on my shoulder. "Is it true? Did you turn her back into a human?" She asked gently, acting like I would run off screaming at any moment. I gave her a panicked look, not knowing what was going on.

"I'm sorry... I don't know what I did." I mumbled, slowly stepping away from the group. They stared at me, judging me in silence. "Please don't look at me like that! I honestly don't understand what's been going on with me." I said, feeling like I was being put on the spot.

Susie gave me a sympathetic look. "You did something. If you did it once, maybe you can do it again?" She tried, sounding hopeful. I shook my head, feeling scared.

Just then the floor started rumbling. My eyes widened as I realized that the lost ones and searchers had come around for a fight. "Oh no..." I muttered, as Searchers and lost ones started forming all around. I raised my pipe defensively, backing myself into a wall as the inky mob approached me.

My breathing quickened, as panic started to set in. The closer they got, the more scared I became, now plastering myself to the wall. Memories of the war came back, making tears run down my eyes. I could distantly hear yelling as the searchers molded themselves around my feet. I found my shaking arms pinned to the wall by lost ones, as sudden pain flared up in the base of my skull. I started struggling, trying to get away. I managed to wrench the hand holding the pipe away from the mass of inky arms, only for the pipe to disappear. That same damned feather quill replaced it, now finally tipping me to a full panic.

"Let me go. Let me go! LET ME GO!!! I screamed, as my eyes started to burn. Ink bubbled up my throat once more, preventing me from breathing. I started choking on it as my vision suddenly filled with gold.

I found myself falling to the ground, no longer held up by inky arms. Gurgling, I started to metaphorically coughing up a lung as I was approached by the others. They all watched me worriedly as my coughing gained a note of harshness to it. Blood and golden ink bubbled out of my mouth as my vision swirled. Susie and Allison were both pulling me upwards, raising me so that I could get the ink out of my throat.

It took a few minutes before I was finally breathing normally again. I was shaking violently, now openly sobbing into my hands. I felt gentle pats on my shoulder as everyone tried to calm me down. Hiccuping, I lifted my head and frantically looked around, wondering where all the inky monsters went. "Wh-where did th-they all go?" I finally asked, my voice hoarse and cracking. Boris walked into view, looking concerned. He offered me a hand up.

I lifted the hand not holding the feather quill and took his hand, shaking slightly. He hauled me up and gestured for the crowd to move so that I could see what was behind them. When they all shuffled away, I saw ink covered forms seemingly shedding off massive amounts of ink, revealing human skin underneath. I gasped, staring at the figures with an open mouth.

I was shocked. Frightened even. I couldn't wrap my mind around what I had done. I turned my face away, looking over to the area where the fence gate was. I heard Susie and Sammy debating something nearby. I jumped as a black clawed hand landed on my shoulder.

I looked behind me to see Norman. "I don't understand what's going on here either Henri. I know the others want to talk this over with you, but I think your time would be better spent getting to Bendy. There's no telling what would happen if he were to die here, seeing as he is directly connected to all the souls trapped in the ink." He crackled quietly, seemingly understanding that I couldn't handle this right now.

I nodded slowly, turning my thoughts to Bendy again. I turned to the tied off gate, and pointed at it. Norman walked over with me and examined the tie keeping the doors closed. He reached out a hand and sliced through the rope with ease. He pushed me forward, silently encouraging me to get going. "Thank you!" I whispered to Norman, as I charged over to the boarded off doorway. I didn't bother to slow down as I got closer to the door. I eventually ended up crashing through the two boards, breaking the first board laid on the ground upon impact. I fell downward, deep into the bowels of the studio hearing a panicked Norman calling my name. A large pool of ink broke my fall which kept me from breaking anything, but still hurt.

I pulled myself upward, groaning at the sharp stinging pain that blossomed throughout my back. I headed into the next room, immediately taking note of the massive inky veins pulsating all over the walls. Worry gripped me, as I rushed over to the door with the sign above it saying 'Film Vault.' I threw open the door and rushed to the left where the usually flooded hallway was. Fortunately, the hallway was all drained allowing me to continue onward without having to hunt for thick ink. I rushed through the hall, the pulsating inky veins now webbing even thicker across the walls.

I entered the vault where I found that the two metal doors had been literally torn apart. Inky puddles littered the floor. I took the door on the right, passing through a few halls (and a few broken cut outs) and arrived at the hall that normally had a large glass wall in it. Behind the glass (which was shattered all over the floor) on the floor was Bendy.

I ran over to him calling his name as terror consumed my mind. Up close, I noticed he was in horrible shape. He would have been in his normal ink demon form, had he not been so messed up. The smell of burnt ink was rich in the air, and several spots on his body were crispy with sigils burned into his flesh. His horns were malformed and his left leg was twisted in such a way to suggest that it was possibly broken. He was missing a hand, and his arms were melting away, which explained the inky flecks surrounding him. He was laying face down on the floor.

I walked over to his head and slowly sank to the ground, not caring about the small shards of glass that were most likely digging into my skirt and legs. I reached over to where his shoulders where, and turned him over so that I could see his face.

Ink had covered most of it which I gently swiped off. I scooted over and lifted his head so it was laying in my lap. I patted between his horns hesitantly, not really knowing what to do. I found myself hoping that he would wake up as I pulled my messed up braid from behind my back. I pulled off Bendy's bow and laid it down on it's original position. "Hold on Bendy." I whispered to him, lifting the quill over to his missing hand. I poked the melty wrist that would have connected to his hand with the quill, trying to see if I would get a reaction.

Bendy whimpered and jerked his arm away, his face scrunching up in pain. I grabbed his arm again and laid it on the floor. I quickly drew a gloved hand on the floor next to this wrist, watching worriedly as a new inky blob bubbled into existence. The blob attached itself to Bendy's wrist, slowly forming into his usual gloved hand. I scratched the messy ink on his arms back into place as I waited impatiently for the hand to finish forming, turning my attention to his horns.

I scratched the quill against the melting points, slowly drawing the ink back into it's proper shape. It proved to be difficult, seeing as Bendy kept on trying to flinch away from the quill, acting like I was shoving needles in his inky flesh. When his horns looked even once more, I placed the quill on the ground. I slid my hands underneath his elbows and slowly started to hoist him up. I propped him up against the wall, about to straighten out his broken leg. Once I was sure he was as comfortable as he could get, I retrieved the quill. I brought the quill up to my mouth and bit down on the soft fibers at the end of it. I reached down and hesitantly placed both hands on Bendy's left leg about to move it.

With a quick, fluid movement, the leg was twisted back to it's original location. Bendy tensed up all of a sudden, now shaking. I looked up at the malformed toon's face, seeing that Bendy had snapped awake. For a moment we just stared at each other before I grabbed the quill from my mouth. I figured that he was either in a state of shock or couldn't move because of the sigils, which would explain why he wasn't really reacting to finding me alive. I waggled the quill in front of his face for a moment before lowering it to one of the crispy sigils that adorned his body.

He hissed in pain as I scratched out the symbols on his belly and right shoulder, looking hurt and exhausted. I found that the charred ink morphed back into normal when the sigils were removed, slowly removing the foul smell in the room.

"Can you lay down on your stomach Bendy? I need to get the sigils on your back removed." I asked quietly. Bendy didn't move at all. He just sat there looking at my face. I sighed as I got up walked closer and sat down next to Bendy. I reached over and pulled Bendy into a hug, knowing the toon had been through a lot lately. His arms violently twitched, seemingly with great effort. I felt inky tears fall onto my right shoulder, telling me that he was crying. I was getting worried about him. I softly patted his head. "It's alright Bendy if you can't move right now. I understand that Susie put some angelic warding on you. Don't exhaust yourself trying to move. I need you to stay awake for me." I soothed. Bendy's tense form slowly relaxed.

I pulled away from him enough to be able to turn his body so that I was facing his back. Three more sigils were branded onto him. I started working on them, deciding that I was going to have a serious talk with Susie later. One by one the sigils were etched away, eradicating the smell of burnt ink. The second that I had finished Bendy slumped to the side, form shrinking. It was terrible to witness, seeing as this time he wasn't simply shedding ink, but his body was compacting in on itself. The ink on him became denser, less drippy. His skeletal body became less jagged, less sharp. I heard the groaning of bones made of ink reforming. He was morphing into an exact replica of the Bendy that I used to draw years ago.

When it was all done, Bendy looked to be exhausted. The inky veins surrounding us faded away. He was back to his usual height of two and a half feet, so it was rather easy to pick him up in my arms. He clutched onto my shirt and buried his face against my neck like I was going to disappear at any moment. After a few minutes I figured he had fallen asleep so I was surprised when started speaking out of the blue. "Your alive?" He asked, his tired voice muffled from where his face was pressed against my neck. I smiled down at him and shifted my hold on him so that I was able to stroke his back.

"Who else would be able to fix you?" I questioned, amusement strong in my tone. "Yes Bendy, I'm still here. You are not getting rid of me that easily." I said affectionately, as I patted his back. "Go to sleep Bendy. I will be here when you wake. I promise." I said, as the little devil relaxed fully into my arms. A few minutes passed and little snoring became audible.

I absently stroked Bendy's back as he slept, getting up off of the floor. I exited the room and made my way back over to the appointment lobby. I settled down on the bench next to the little miracle station, and started waiting for the others to catch up.

 


	6. Revisit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd here we are with the next to last chapter. This chapter gave me a hard time, but I think it turned out all right.

I gazed down at the drop where Henrietta had fallen into, swearing internally. The light from my projector head illuminated a fair distance down into the hole in the ground; enough to tell that the drop was a long one. I could hear the others coming up from behind me, having heard me call out to Henri. For a moment, I debated jumping down after her so I wouldn't have to explain what had just happened to everyone else. My option was ripped away when a mechanical hand gripped my shoulder and hauled me away from my chance at escaping.

Screeching, I craned my neck around so that the light to my projector was shining in full brightness into Tom's eyes. Tom growled at me, unamused with my actions. Before things could escalate into a fight, Allison came into view and started coaxing Tom to let me go. Tom sent me a distrustful glare before grudgingly releasing my shoulder.

Susie, Sammy and Boris had all been watching us silently, grinning mischievously. I glanced over at the three of them, wondering what had them so happy. My thoughts were torn away from that when Allison started speaking. "What just happened?" She asked, voice firm. I stared at her for a moment before deciding what to say.

"Well you see" I started, not really wanting to be here. "Henrietta kinda, you know... fell." I said awkwardly, hoping the ground would just open up and grab me already. I pointed behind me, gesturing to the hole in the ground where Henri fell.

Susie pushed past me and walked over to the massive hole in the ground. She glared at the demolished boards for a few seconds. "This looks like she did more then just fall." She said, suspicion leeching into her voice..

I stood there silently for a few moments while everyone just stared at me. I spared a glance down at my feet, hoping to find a hole to jump into. Sadly, the ground remained solid below me. I looked up again, now seeing unamused expressions. Accepting my fate, I tried to explain again. "I told her that her time would be better spent getting to Bendy then on freaking out. So she charged through the boards hanging on the doorway and fell through the boards on the ground."

Allison's face morphed into an expression of horror. "Bendy? You mean the ink demon? And you let her go after him? She's going to get killed!" She said, her voice rising into nearly a shriek.

"Allison." Susie called, looking nervous. "The demon won't hurt her." She said flinching away from the scowl that Allison then directed at her.

"What are you implying?" Allison asked, suspiciously. Susie looked uncomfortable, like she would rather be talking about something else. Glaring at her, Allison picked up on her nervousness, frowning as she took her body language into consideration. Allison's expression became furious. "Are you seriously implying that the demon may have romantic feelings for Henri?" Allison growled, looking scandalized. Her fierce expression could've melted ice. It only got worse when Boris started laughing at her. I decided to cut in to save Allison from more embarrassment.

"Actually, their relationship is more like mother and son. Bendy may be around thirty plus years old, but he's like a child in actuality." I said, slightly amused by this situation.

 _"So that's why he got angry when I tried to sacrifice Henri to him..."_ Sammy muttered, making Susie raise an eyebrow. Sammy however, appeared to be lost in his thoughts so he didn't notice the looks everyone was giving him. Allison turned her gaze to the floor. She walked over to the door frame that was closest to the hole in the ground.

"Tom, I think we can get down there if we hang this rope up from one of the boards here." Allison said, gazing at the rather gnarled and knotted slab of wood that made one third of the poor excuse for a doorway. Tom walked over to Allison, gazing at the ugly piece of wood hanging on the wall. He lifted his axe into the air, and lodged it right into a particularly knotted section of the plank. I watched as he smacked the metal hilt of the axe a few times with his mechanical hand, making a notch where a rope could be tied to. With a little difficulty, Tom managed to wrench the axe back out of the wood. Allison swooped in and started to tie a loop to the end of the rope.

While she was preoccupied, I turned and walked over to the area where we had all previously been. I dimmed the light to my projector head so it was barely on, and peeked around the opened fence. On the ground were several figures that were in varying stages of reform. Some of them looked almost human again, while others looked like bubbling, growing piles of ink. They were all so eerily silent, like they no longer possessed the ability to make noise.

I lifted a hand up to my head. It had been a long time since I had turned into this creature. It's hard to remember the days where I could actually stand up straight without having my entire back being bowed over by the weight of the projector.

To think, that for thirty years I had suffered like this, losing more and more of myself as the years go by. Every one of us wanted to get out of here, to be able to live as humans again. We had all thought that it would take nothing short of god to save us, and yet... Henri seemed to be doing the impossible. Turning inky failures back to bone and flesh, creating things out of ink... things that no human should be able to do.

Humans are delicate, and frail, their minds easy to destroy. As a rule of nature, humans cannot dabble in arts on such a scale without something being changed, or something being sacrificed. Henri may be able to fix this mess, but at what price?

...

"Allison, are you sure this will work?" I asked, looking at the rope with a worried expression. Allison rolled her eyes at me.

"Will it work? Yes. Will it be safe? Maybe not." Allison replied, clapping an inky hand to my new human arm. "But you have to realize Susie, it's our only way of getting down to Henri and Bendy without just falling down there." I sighed as I looked over at the small party that I had chosen to go along with. Boris was looking mopey, Tom was looking grumpy (like normal), and Sammy was pinching his arm, trying hard not to lapse back into role of the Prophet. Allison was looking too proud of herself in my opinion for someone who simply tied a rope and wedged it into the wall. My eyes scanned the room further, taking note of Norman's absence. Allison clapped her hands together, looking around. "All right! Who's first?" She asked, now also noticing the missing projectionist. "Hey, where's Norman?" She asked.

"Here." He replied gruffly, shuffling back away from the gateway to the lost one's village. I raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything. Sighing, I stepped forward.

"I guess I'll go first." I said, looking at the rope with a less then favorable look. Honestly, how much weight would that old thing hold? Glancing at Allison's face, I walked forward and took the rope. I grabbed onto it tightly and jumped off the floor into the hole in the ground. The rope swayed dangerously, but held my weight without issue. I carefully made way down a few floors, swearing mentally whenever the rope swayed too much. It only took a minute for me to reach the bottom of the hole, which was covered in ink. Cursing, I started swinging the rope, forcing it to bring me closer to the non inky surface. When I felt that I had built up enough inertia, I let go of the rope as soon as I was near the edge of the inky pool.

I tucked myself into a roll, falling into the floor and moving a considerable distance before the rolling stopped. Dazed, I sat up blinking lazily as I noticed two figures at the end of the room. I got up, walking closer.

On the bench next to the little miracle station was a sleepy, inky Henri with a perfect Bendy curled up in her arms. Henri greeted me with a curt nod as she lowered the  
demon onto her lap. I walked closer to the duo, curious about how the two were doing. Henri stared at me cautiously as I edged closer to them, looking tired and wary. I stopped six feet away from them, simply observing the two.

Henri for the record, was a complete mess. Her braid was inky and falling apart, and her shirt was speckled with large gobs of ink. The skirt that she wore was black and appeared to be dripping a small inky puddle beneath the bench. There were little cuts littering Henri's arms and legs, with small rivulets of drying blood seeping out of some of them. Her gold speckled eyes looked slightly glassy and dull, like she her mind had drifted off from the present.

Bendy on the other hand was perfectly spotless. Not one part of him was off model. He was completely healed up from our last encounter, which I suspected was only possible with Henri's aid. He had a content expression on his face, snoring peacefully against Henri's stomach. He looked so innocent like this, so unlike the inky terror that we had all grown to fear.

A loud splash echoed in the behind us. Faint arguing could be heard in the distance, telling me that two more members of our group had joined us. I glanced behind me to see an irritated Norman walking by a disturbingly happy Sammy, who was being held onto by his arm with a vice grip.

 _"My lord?!"_ Sammy trilled, trying to escape Norman's hold. I quickly held my hand up in a shushing motion, trying to get the crazed musician to be quiet. Norman slapped his other hand over Sammy's mouth, trying to forcibly silence him. It didn't even bother the babbling prophet, who was still muttering praises to the little devil sleeping on Henri's lap.

A shoe sailed over from Henri's direction, hitting Sammy in the chest and sticking there. All three of us glanced over at Henri, who was looking both irritated and worried as she glanced down at Bendy, who was stirred slightly from his sleep. Bendy's closed eyes twitched as his horns wiggled in our direction. Henry reached down and gently rubbed between Bendy's horns in a soothing way, luring the demon back into a peaceful slumber.

Sammy had fallen silent, seeing that all the commotion was bothering the imp. Norman reluctantly removed his hand from Sammy's mouth, releasing his arm slowly. He wrenched the shoe off of Sammy's body and walked over to Henri. He dropped it on the bench next to the tired animator. Henri smiled and mouthed a thank you to Norman. Shortly thereafter, her eyelids started drooping low over her eyes, and her mouth cracked open in a yawn. Her head fell to the back of the bench with a subtle 'thunk', eyes closing. Her hand fell from Bendy's head, dropping by her side limply.

I turned around, now facing the two boys who were behind me. I silently gestured for the others to follow me back over to the room's entrance, not wanting to be a further disturbance to the two sleeping on the bench. We all walked back over to the entrance, and sat down against the wall, waiting for the others to join us.

Boris was the next one to make an appearance, shimmying down the rope like a pro. With a sigh, Norman got up from the floor and waded over to where the rope met the inky pond. Boris stilled on the rope, not sure on how to get off of it without falling into the ink below. Norman reached upward and grabbed hold of Boris, who started to hesitantly let go of the rope. Norman carried Boris out onto the dry area and set him down.

The wolf looked around and tilted his head curiously, wondering what we were all doing sitting out here. _"Might as well take a seat and make yourself comfortable Boris. Henri and Bendy are sleeping on the bench in the other room."_ Sammy said, just loud enough for the group to hear. Boris walked over to the doorway and peeked around the corner. A jealous whine emitted from the wolf, as he turned and walked back over to the rest of us. He settled down next to Norman with a huff, pouting childishly. I turned my attention back over to the rope, which was swaying from side to side.

"Looks like the other two will be joining us soon." I muttered, watching as a black buckled boot came into view. The boot was quickly followed by it's owner; Allison. She climbed near the bottom of the rope and swung over the inky floor. She quirked an eyebrow at us sitting by the wall, but didn't say anything about it. She stood at the edge of the pond, waiting for Tom to join us.

She didn't have to wait long. Another boot soon came into view as Tom noiselessly made his way down the rope. He spotted the rest of us on the dry piece of ground, and started swinging the rope to be able to join us. Once he landed, Allison turned to face the rest of us.

"Did you find Henri?" Allison asked, confused on why we were all sitting out here.

"Yep. Their in the other room sleeping on a bench." I said, finding small amusement at the incredulous expression that spread across her face. Allison walked over to the doorway with Tom on her heels. She just stood in the doorway for a moment, staring at the two snoozing away in the distance. She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes.

"Damnit. Why is it that of all times she chooses to fall asleep now?" Allison groaned, walking back over to the rest of us. "And why was she not wearing one of her shoes?" She muttered, not really talking to any of us at this point. I cracked a smile, remembering Henri throwing said shoe at Sammy.

"Eh, I say we give them a few minutes." Sammy said, instantly becoming the center of attention. He looked like he had gotten a grip and regained his sanity again. I raised an eyebrow at him. "What? We've been stuck here for years, what's a few more minutes?" He quipped.

"He's got a point." Norman chimed in.

"Henri threw her shoe at Sammy when he almost woke up Bendy. I think we should wait until the demon wakes up at the very least." I said, now yawning. "Besides, turning back into a human is very draining. It's probably for the best if we all rest up now while we still can." I added.

We all fell into a comfortable silence. Tom and Allison sat back against the wall like the rest of us. Apparently they were either fed up or tired as well.

"What's it like Susie, being human again?" Norman asked after a while, his previously dimmed projector brightening up a little. This question drew most of the group's attention, save for Boris who didn't appear to have actually been a human before.

"It's not bad, but not exactly pleasant either." I said, a thoughtful look taking over my face. "When you turn back, you remember who you were before you were changed. But you also remember your time in the ink. It was frightening, waking up in the mindset of your old self, and discovering all that you had done while you were here. But then again, it's reassuring knowing that your back in your own skin once more and your no longer in danger of being dragged back into the ink." I said, sounding tired.  
Norman nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer.

We all did our best to get comfortable, deciding that going to sleep was probably one of the only things we could do at this time without waking the duo in the other room.

...

It was the scratching of a quill that woke me up. Upon opening my eyes, I found that I was no longer sitting in Henri's lap but sitting next to her on the bench. Henri had her journal propped up on her lap and was writing away quietly. Her hair looked clean and was braided neatly, and her clothes were ink free. She had bandages wrapped around her legs and wrists, which held the lingering stench of medical alcohol. It appeared Henri left for a bit and got herself cleaned up when I was still asleep. I stared at her face for a few moments, taking comfort in the fact that she was still here, alive and breathing.

"Glad to see you've woken up Bendy." Henri said as she turned her head to look at my face. "You were out of it for quite some time. While you were asleep I was able to find a way to clean myself up by using the quill and a mirror. I also talked to the others who were waiting for us to wake up." She added, turning her attention to closing up her journal and grabbing her bag off the floor from where it was sitting next to the bench.

"By the others do you mean Norman and Boris?" I asked, watching as Henri put her book away. Henri heaved a sigh as she zipped up the backpack, slinging it onto her back and putting the quill in her shirt pocket where a blue folded paper was also being held.

"Susie, Sammy and Norman found me while you were still asleep. Susie looked like she wanted to talk to me but Sammy was acting like the prophet again. Norman tried to restrain him and keep him from waking you up, but it didn't work. A shoe may have been thrown before they left the room and were found by Boris, Tom and Allison." Henri said, sounding slightly amused. She turned her head back over to face me and smiled happily. "They've been waiting patiently for the both of us to wake up. We should go and talk to them now and let them know that we haven't slipped into comas or something." She mused, reaching over and patting between my horns affectionately.

She hopped off of the bench and made for the doorway with me trailing behind. I found myself getting nervous as we got closer to the other room, knowing that for the past thirty years I had proved to have been hostile and dangerous. Voices became audible as we neared the ruined frame of the doorway.

"No, absolutely not!" Someone crackled, their voice sounding like a ham radio gone bad.

 _"What other choice do we have?"_ Someone else said. This voice I recognized as Sammy's. He sounded frustrated.

"There must be some other way to free us without getting her killed... I'm sure whatever has been done here can be reversed peacefully." A lady spoke this time, sounding like the Alice that traveled with the Boris with the mechanical arm.

"We should talk this over with the two of them. I think I hear them walking over here." This voice sounded like Susie, the one who tried to kill both me and Henri.

At this point, both me and Henri had entered the room. On our left sitting against the wall were three people who I recognized, two people who I've seen before but didn't know, and a female human like Henri. Every head swiveled over to us, making me gulp nervously. I hid behind Henri's legs, frightened by the large group of toons and mistakes. I was a shaking mess. I knew it was silly for me to be scared; I was still the ink demon that had sown fear across this entire studio... and yet here I was scared for my life.

Henri noticed me hiding behind her and turned around, kneeling on the ground. She reached over and picked me up, holding me like I was made of glass. I hid my face against her shirt, still shaking. She patted the back of my head sympathetically, standing back up and turning to the others.

"Is that... the ink demon?" The Alice clone asked, sounding awed. I could feel eyes drilling into the back of my head, making wish that I could turn invisible and disappear from view.

"He looks different from the last time I saw him." Another feminine voice piped, sounding cautious. Henri turned rigid, holding me against her protectively.

"And who's fault is that Susie?" Henri growled, sounding upset. "I know your better now and feel sorry about what you did, but that doesn't change the fact that had I not gotten to Bendy when I did, he would be dead by now. If he died, you would have killed a child Susie." Henri said, her voice wavering slightly. I hesitantly turned my head, peeking out from around Henri's hand that was covering my face. It appeared Henri was talking to the human, seeing as she was staring at the ground with a rather guilty expression on her face. "There's nothing that can be done about it right now though. I need to turn the rest of you back into humans again and work on getting a way out of here." Henri said firmly.

'Susie' looked up at Henri, her expression worried. "About that Henri, I don't think we are actually in that old animation studio." I frowned, confused.

"Please explain Susie." Henri said.

"Remember how I said that we're trapped in a box? We are trapped in something else Henri. Something without a physical exit to it. It's like every exit door was just made to look like a door and wasn't actually a door at all." Susie said quickly, acting nervous and twitchy. Henri went still. Slowly she lowered me to the ground, a blank expression on her face. She pulled out the blue paper from her shirt pocket and unfolded it.

For a few moments, she just stared at the paper. Disbelief filled her face as she continued reading, her eyes widening as she lowered the page for a moment. Her eyebrows narrowed as she lifted the page again and gazed at the paper thoughtfully. Finally, she lowered the paper.

"Henri? What is it?" Norman asked, his voice overlaid with more static.

"What do you want to hear first? The good news? Or the bad news?" Henri asked, sounding oddly calm for the situation she was in. The group of misfits glanced at each other, curiosity visible from their actions. Allison was the one who spoke first.

"All right, what's the good news?" Allison asked. Henri stared at the others, a nearly blank expression on her face.

"The good news is there is an escape from this place. A few minor things need to be done and a little searching may be involved, but there is an exit."

 _"So what's the bad news?"_ Sammy asked.

"We may be damning Joey to this fate if we succeed in getting out of here, which now that I think about it, it may actually be good news anyway." Henri smiled at that and shook her head. "We need Joey's audio log, which is in his office in administration. Bendy, I need you to get that film reel that you have stowed away." She said, making me freeze.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Henri?" I asked, not wanting a repeat of the last loop's ending. Henri smiled reassuringly at me.

"Just trust me on this Bendy." She responded. I heaved a sigh of defeat as I turned to the inky puddle a little ways away. "I'll go get the audio log. It shouldn't take too long."

I stepped into the ink puddle, and traveled through the ink over to the throne room. I stepped inside the room and walked over to the throne, grabbing the reel off of the chair. I created another portal out of the room and entered it. I reappeared in the room that I had left in. Henri was still gone, so I leaned against the wall waiting for her to arrive.

Henri reappeared holding an audio log, looking quite proud of herself. Turning to me, Henri started asking me a question. "Bendy, can you create an ink portal up to the top floor in the offering room?" She asked, excitement clear in her voice. I turned to the wall, holding out my left hand and focusing hard.

A large, black and inky portal formed on the wall. One by one, each and every member of the group entered the portal. Upon reappearing on the other side, Henri walked over to the pedestals. She waved Tom over and asked him to break the audio log into six pieces. While he did that, Henri shoved off the offerings that were placed on the pedestals.

When Tom was finished, Henri took all the pieces and placed one on each pedestal. The pipes above us started thumping furiously, as the large paneled door opened, allowing us to exit the room. "Ok, that should allow us all to leave. Now we just need to crack that reel open and add a few things to it." Henri said, as I walked over and handed her the reel. Henri attempted to crack the reel open, only to be stopped by Norman who took the reel out of her hands.

He unraveled the reel and handed it back over to Henri, who thanked him. Henri pulled out her quill and scribbled furiously on several boxes of the film, adding gold ink to the rest of the reel. When she was done, Henri finally turned to face the others. "Ok, lets fix up the rest of you." She muttered as she turned around to face the group. She just stared at them for three seconds before the entirety of her eyes turned gold.

Most of the others slumped to the ground, their forms bubbling viciously. Boris and Susie were the only two left standing, seeing as they were the only ones who couldn't be changed back.

Boris and Susie looked around at the others curiously, not sure what to do. I glanced at Henri worriedly, seeing that her eyes hadn't returned to their normal color. Henri lifted the reel up in view of her eyes.

All sense of where I was suddenly vanished. All around me I could hear gears turning and pipes thumping away. I floated in an inky mass for a little while before I felt gravity take hold of me. I found myself falling downward only the smack into a hardwood floor.

"Ow." I grumbled, as I sat up. I was still in the studio, but something was wrong with how it all looked. Everything was bleached a shade of white. I stood up, realizing that I was directly underneath the nozzle of the ink machine. I scurried back, bumping into something warm and fleshy.

Turning around, I saw an ink covered Henrietta reaching down to me.


End file.
